The Sun, the Moon and the Cushion

Chapters

Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Although younger than Princess Celestia, Princess Luna had experienced many things over time. Sure enough they had walked this realm long enough. How long exactly remained a secret they were unwilling to share.

The Princess of the Night had been part of wars amongst warring nations and demonic beings from realms ponies knew nothing of. She had seen and bested ferocious beasts and entities, once even standing up to her elder sister herself when corruption took hold of her.

Yet in all those eons she had never once been assaulted with pastry. Until now….

Three fillies stared up in shock as the royal ruler of the night stood in the doorway, her face plastered with pie. The dark substance suggested that the filling had not been apples, much to Applebloom’s dismay. Yet that was the least of her worries at the moment.

Slowly the Princess folded her flared wings back that had opened in surprise. A pink tongue briefly appeared amidst the dark pie filling, licking over her covered lips.

“Blueberries.” The Princess dryly commented after a moment.

The alicorn’s horn briefly lit up as she prepared a spell. A bright flash blinded the fillies for a moment. Once they could see again all traces of the pie had vanished. The Princess eyed them with surprise. She had not been expecting anypony to be here, in fact she had carefully planned to have this room deserted for a short amount of time.

It took her only a second or two to recognize the fillies cowering in front of her. One of which she had personally visited once, albeit only in the filly's dreams.

“What brings you here, my little ponies?” her voice was soft and kind. The crusaders had deep down reckoned to get the full canterlot voice treatment.

“We are so so sorry, Princess!” Scootaloo hastily said.

“We were jus’ messin’ around. Ah didn’t mean ta hit ya with that pie!” Applebloom added with a wavering voice.

“Are we in trouble?” Sweetie Belle tried her best to dissolve into the tiles beneath her unsuccessfully.

“At ease young fillies. I bear you no ill will.” Princess Luna gave them a friendly smile and watched the terrified trio slowly relax. “Yet I find it most peculiar to find you here. Shouldn’t you be amongst my sisters other guests?”

“We got hungry and bored.” Scootaloo explained. Unlike the other crusaders she had less reservations about talking to the Princess. Mainly due to the fact that she liked Princess Luna a lot, after all she had come to her aid during that fateful camping trip which had led to where she was now.

“We…we weren’t going ta make a mess or eat everythin’ up. We jus’ wanted a small snack, that’s all.” Applebloom stood up beside Scootaloo and pulled Sweetie Belle up from her prone position.

Luna glances over the assortment of appetizers and the contents of the open refrigerator. What had been eaten was hardly even noticeable once she would rearrange it around a bit. Her thoughts were interrupted by Scootaloo’s question.

“Are you also going to be at the party?”

“I fear not. Since my sister has chosen to host this occasion after sunset, I must take up my duties as the Princess of the Night. However I shall be dining with you later in the evening.” She explained while keeping her voice calm.

It bugged her immensely that Celestia would always host these type of things when she had to watch over Equestria during the night. It had been so in the past and was once again the case after her return. Now however she had realized that ponies did indeed honor her duties and guidance during the night. The bitterness that had consumed her all those years ago had no hold of her anymore.

“Aww…that’s not fair.” Scootaloo commented.

“Duties are not always fair.” Princess Luna smiled at the little Pegasus.

“What brings ya here, yer majesty? Are ya also hungry?” Encouraged by Scootaloo’s boldness Applebloom felt the need to ask a few questions of her own. When else would she possibly ever get the chance to talk to any one of the royal sisters like this again?

“I think you dropped something.” Sweetie Belle picked up a small glass vial with her hooves.

Princess Luna recognized the vial immediately. It had been safely tucked away under her wing until the pie to her face had caused her to open her wings in response. Before she had time to say or do anything Sweetie Belle read out loud what was written on the small label.

“Diluted Essence of Poison Joke?” Three sets of eyes slowly set their gaze on the ruler of the night.

For a few moments neither pony spoke or even moved. Princess Luna’s smile became slightly strained under the inquisitive looks of the fillies.

There wasn’t any real elegant solution to the problem Luna was suddenly facing. A look into the eyes of the three fillies told her that they knew that the Princess had not come here to merely have a snack. Using a mind-wipe spell came to her mind, but found it rather excessive to be used on three fillies. Besides she doubted she could actually go through with it. An idea popped into her mind and her strained smile formed into a smirk.

“Ahem. Yes, that indeed is mine. Tell me young fillies, how would you like to assist your Princess in a task of utmost importance?”

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Ten minutes later the trio of fillies followed their Princess out of the kitchen and into the hallway she had used previously. The crusaders kept quietly giggling to themselves.

“The garden where the festivities are being held is just down this passage. Take the door to the right and you should see it.” Princess Luna smiled at her little helpers and was about to take her leave.

“How will you see what happens, Princess?” Sweetie Belle asked politely.

“I shall be watching from the top of the castle’s highest tower.”

“You can see that far down?” Scootaloo was impressed. The highest tower was indeed a wondrous sight, looming imposingly over the rest of the castle. Even ponies that took no interest in architecture stopped and looked at it, marveling at how ponies could have built something so great. Very few knew that it had been built by magic instead of hooves.

“I have…” Princess Luna stopped herself midsentence and smiled as she had an idea. “Instead of me explaining it, would you perhaps like to join me there? The festivities shall not begin for a few moments.”

Without waiting for an answer Princess Luna opened a door to a small open courtyard. Apart from a single tree in the middle there was nothing interesting to be seen. The fillies followed their ruler outside and craned their necks to look up to the tower that the Princess was pointing at with a hoof.

“Ya want us ta meet ya up there? It’ll be mornin’ by the time we’ve reached the top.” Applebloom shuddered slightly while imagining how many stairs they would have to climb.

“I know a faster way.” Without waiting for a reply Princess Luna picked them up with her magic and with a mighty flap of their wings was airborne.

Sweetie Belle let out a choked scream and clung on to Scootaloo, who in return let out a yelp of surprise. Flying in a balloon or some other contraption was bad enough, now she felt nothing underneath her except for a slight tingling sensation caused by the magic. She shut her eyes and hoped it would be over soon.

Applebloom didn’t seem too thrilled by the experience either and hugged Sweetie Belle from behind. The only one thoroughly enjoying the flight was Scootaloo. She watched in awe as the ground dropped away from them at a rapid pace. The castle became smaller and smaller, the few ponies she could see were no more than colorful dots down below. She would have loved to stretch her wings, but the surprisingly strong grip of Sweetie Belle prevented that.

Only a few seconds later they reached the top of the tower. Princess Luna carefully set the fillies down and let her magic fade away. She noticed that the little unicorn was holding her friend in a vice like grip. Carefully she put a hoof on the little back and let a bit of magic flow through it. Sweetie Belle felt the very comforting warmth flow through her and she relaxed almost instantly.

“I am sorry if I scared you, little Sweetie Belle.” Luna was genuinely concerned.

“It’s ok now. I just don’t like flying all that much.” Sweetie Belle gave the Princess a small smile and finally let go of Scootaloo.

Finally free of Sweetie Belle’s bear hug the little pegasus observed her surroundings. The platform they were standing on was just big enough for a pony the size of Princess Celestia to move about without hitting the balustrade. Princess Luna, being smaller then Celestia, had more room to move about and left enough space for the three fillies.

Telescopes were affixed to the balustrade at regular intervals. Rising a few ponies lengths above the platform was the actual tip of the tower. The platform seemed to actually be off to the side of the tower itself, strangely from the ground it appeared to be centered. Scootaloo mentally shrugged and came to the conclusion that it might have something to do with magic.

A doorway led presumably back downstairs, but the door was closed and she did not feel like finding out if it was open. Something about this place seemed off to her. It took a moment to realize what it was. At this height they should be feeling the wind, but the air did not stir even the slightest.

“How come there’s no wind up here?” she asked.

“This observational platform is shielded by a magical barrier. Invisible to the naked eye it diverts the wind for us so that we can observe undisturbed.” Princess Luna nodded her head to one of the telescopes. Driven by curiosity the fillies investigated the nearest one.

“How far can ya see with one of these?” Applebloom studied the telescope carefully. It’s design was rather uninspiring. No more than a wooden tube with a few plain metal bindings holding it together. The telescopes Twilight had in her library were much more impressive.

“All the way to the borders of Equestria.” Princess Luna answered and prepared a spell. A small stepladder materialized next to the fillies made entirely of midnight blue energy.

Scootaloo climbed up to the telescopes eyepiece by using the magical stepladder. She aimed the telescope carefully towards a mountain range in the distance. When she looked through she was slightly disappointed.

“I can’t see anything.”

“That is due to you not being magically linked to it.” Luna prepared another spell. This time the dark blue mystical energies bathed the fillies in its glow. After a brief moment the glow died down except for a faint shimmer around their heads. “Try again.”

This time Scootaloo saw the mountain range perfectly. What was even more curious was that she could see them as if it were midday.

“How far away are those mountains?” she asked and looked over to the Princess, who took a moment to think.

“I believe you are observing the mountains that lie between Canterlot and your home town of Ponyville.”

“Too bad we can’t see Ponyville.” Scootaloo looked through the eyepiece once more carefully observing the trees plainly visible to her on one of the slopes.

“You can.” Luna smiled at the skeptical looks she received. “You just have to concentrate on what you want to see.”

The orange pegasus concentrated on the only thing she could think of, the crusaders clubhouse. Much to her surprise her view became blurred for an instant, before sharpening again and giving her plain view of the clubhouse.

“But…but how? Aren’t their mountains in the way? And trees?” Scootaloo hopped down from the stepladder and let Applebloom take over.

“It really is our clubhouse. Hey, Ah can see mah house!” Applebloom carefully moved the telescope a bit to the left.

“These telescopes have been infused with a very special magic. Thanks to it we can observe our borders and if need be individual ponies.” Luna explained to the fillies.

“So Ah can see mah brother with this?” Applebloom concentrated and sure enough after a brief bit of blurriness her brother came into view. She watched as he sneakily moved around in the kitchen, careful to not make any noise that might wake up Granny Smith, who at this time would probably be asleep in her rocking chair.

Big Mac very slowly stood on his hindlegs and reached up to a jar on top of a cupboard. He paused for a moment to make sure that Granny was still asleep. Applebloom let out a gasp of surprise as she watched her brother take a large cookie out of the jar and placed it back on top of the cupboard.

“So that’s where he keeps ‘em! Ah knew it!”

“Let me try!” Sweetie Belle hopped up beside Applebloom, who was already planning on how to get to those secret cookies once she was back at Sweet Apple Acres.

“So you can see other ponies? Do you also see their dreams from here?” Scootaloo was sitting beside the Princess and kept her voice quiet. Her friends didn’t hear her and were too busy with the telescope.

“No, that is not how they work. I can feel dreams rather than see them.” Luna explained to the filly at her side.

“My parents are having dinner.” Sweetie Belle stated and carefully watched as they sat in their dining room. “Ugh…sprouts. Glad I’m here tonight.”

Sweetie Belle was not a very big fan of sprouts, a trait she shared with Rarity who had once jokingly said that was the reason she had moved to Carousel Boutique in the first place. Far away from her mother’s obsession with sprouts. Judging by her father’s expression he no doubt would have rather come to Canterlot with his daughters. Sweetie Belle chuckled and moved the telescope over the rest of Ponyville. “I wonder what Cheerilee is doing.”

“Every pony has nightmares.” Luna continued while watching the other two fillies using the telescope. “I can sense if the nightmare is very intense. Then I observe them by my own means.”

“Oh, oh. Cheerilee seems to be preparing a test for Monday.” Sweetie Belle watched as the teacher sat at her desk concentrating on a test form in front of her. She nosed open a book and copied something written there into the form. Sweetie Belle concentrated and zoomed in to the form. “Bad news Applebloom, it’s going to be a math test.”

“What? Again? We only just had one!” Applebloom lamented and shoved Sweetie Belle away from the eyepiece to have a look herself.

“The last one was two months ago.”

“Far too soon ta have another one, if ya ask me.” The country filly moved the telescope away from Cheerilee and soon came across another familiar figure. “Hehe, Derpy seems to be havin’ fun.”

“Let me see.” Now it was Sweetie Belle’s turn to shove Applebloom away.

Luna moved her gaze from the two fillies to the one sitting at her side. “Sometimes the nightmares continue. If left unchecked it can cause harm, so I enter the dream proper and lend my assistance.”

Scootaloo smiled up to the Princess of the Night. Her nightmares during the camping trip had been very terrifying for the little pegasus. Had it not been for Luna’s guidance she might have never had the courage to open up to Rainbow Dash and confessing her fears, which in turn might have never have Rainbow Dash becoming like a big sister to her.

“Thank you Princess.” Scootaloo hugged Luna’s foreleg and nuzzled her chest, much to Luna’s surprise.

“Y-You are welcome.” Ever since her return ponies had been reserved towards her. The stigma of being Nightmare Moon stuck to her like tar. Strangely enough it had been the children that had looked past her previous self and were welcoming her during the festivities of Nightmare Night in Ponyville. She remembered a time when a mere mention of her name sent foals and even adults hiding in fear. As she looked down to the little pegasus now beaming at her with a big smile she knew that she very much preferred this kind of reaction.

“How did she make so many bubbles?” Sweetie Belle asked nopony in particular as she watched Derpy swim small circles in her large bathtub. Every so often she would disappear under the water and resurface in the middle of a huge mountain of bubbles. She smiled contently as she blew them about, ignoring the ones on top her head and hanging off her chin like an oversized fake beard. Sweetie Belle left the pegasus so happily frolicking amongst the bubbles and water. Her telescopic sight wandered over a few pony’s homes or to be more precise into their homes. After a few uninteresting scenes of Ponyville’s residents going about their usual business, which in most cases consisted of having dinner at this hour, she found an unusual sight.

“I didn’t know that Lyra and Bonbon liked wrestling.”

“Wrasslin’? Those two? Lemme see.” Applebloom took control of the telescope once more as Sweetie Belle moved aside. “Huh? Why are they on the bed?”

“I guess they don’t have enough space for a wrestling mat?” Sweetie Belle shrugged as Applebloom watched the two mares in what could have been the slowest wrestling match she had even seen. No punches, no kicks, no high flying maneuvers, just holds and why were they both smiling so goofily?

“Ain’t never seen a hold like that one.” Applebloom finally remarked entirely oblivious at what she was just witnessing.

With an audible “Pop!” the magical stepladder vanished and the faint glimmer around their heads vanished. The two fillies dropped onto their hooves and looked in surprise at the Princess, who seemed suddenly rather nervous.

“One should not spy on ponies, some things are private and meant for no other eyes.” Luna explained hastily. “Besides I do believe it is time for you to rejoin your friends down below.”

The fillies nodded and huddled together. Sweetie Belle held on to Scootaloo once more, although this time not as tight as before. She closed her eyes as Luna’s magic enveloped them once more. It wasn’t as bad as before, but she did let out a small gasp as she felt the ground below her hooves suddenly vanish. Within a few seconds she felt the ground gently touch her hooves again and when she opened her eyes they were back in the small courtyard with the lone tree.

“If you wish to speak to me, just wave to me. I shall be watching.” Princess Luna winked at them and took to the skies once more. The fillies watched her rapidly ascend high above before disappearing from their sight, presumably landing on the platform so high above.

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Remembering the instructions the Princess had given them they reached the garden just in time. Nopony noticed that they had entered the premise from a different direction than the rest. They beamed little innocent smiles as they were approached by Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

“There you are! I had lost sight of you and was beginning to get worried.” Rarity said and inspected the three smiling fillies. Out of habit she began straightening the dresses the fillies were wearing.

“Told you they would be fine.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and smiled at the crusaders. “Did you have fun? Did you see anything cool?”

“Jus’ a wrasslin’ match.” Applebloom answered.

“Huh? Didn’t know they had those here.” Rainbow Dash nudged Rarity. “Come on, their dresses are fine. Let’s get something to eat.”

“Oh very well. Come along girls, the fun is about to begin.” Rarity said and led the way further into the garden.

“How right you are, sis.” Sweetie Belle giggled along with her friends.

Chapter 4

“How long is this going to take?” Scootaloo whispered to her friends sitting at her side.

The party was now in full swing. As fun as that might have sounded it was nothing more than the same boring thing from the very first room. The exception being that ponies did not go around to introduce themselves, but rather stuck to the ponies they actually wanted to talk to.

Three fillies were not on anypony’s list apparently. Which in truth was fine with them as they wanted to enjoy their work without any questions from others. Unfortunately, ten minutes into the party, nopony had yet fallen into their traps and Scootaloo was getting impatient.

“We only prepared one on each tray remember? So it wouldn’t be too obvious.” Sweetie Belle reminded her friend.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going for something to drink.” Scootaloo left her two friends standing on the edge of the garden in front of a hedge to find something to quench her thirst. The first table she found had some drinks on offer. After a brief exchange of words with the stallion that presumably was a waiter she hobbled back to her friends carrying a tall thin glass in one hoof.

“What’cha got there, Scoots?” Applebloom eyed the glass her friend was holding. The very pale liquid most certainly had a lot of bubbles in it.

“Champion’s flute or something like that. I wasn’t really paying attention.” Scootaloo explained and took a sip. She scrunched up her nose as the unfamiliar taste hit her tongue. In a display most unladylike she turned around and spat it back out into the hedge. “Ugh. I think it’s gone bad.”

The rest of the CMC giggled as the pegasus shook her head in disgust. “I can’t get the taste away.”

“The food not quite your taste?” a familiar voice spoke up beside the crusaders.

“Hey Spike! Where have ya been?” Applebloom smiled at the young dragon wearing a small tuxedo.

“We didn’t see you when we met Princess Celestia or Shining Armor and Cadence.” Sweetie Belle continued.

“They made it? Cool. As for me, well I always visit Donut Joe when I am in Canterlot. Seeing as we are leaving rather early tomorrow morning Twilight gave me permission to visit him before dinner started.” Spike explained and smiled at the memory of the sapphire and ruby coated donut that Donut Joe had made especially for him. “Did I miss anything important?”

“Not yet.” Applebloom smiled at the dragon.

“Uh, ok. You know where Twilight is right now?”

“Ah think she’s over that way.”Applebloom pointed a hoof towards the direction that she assumed Twilight was in. Spike promptly made his way there leaving the fillies behind.

“Come on, let’s get something to eat. I need to get this taste off my tongue.” Scootaloo led her two friends to the nearest table. She snagged one of the carrots shaped into a flower from the first tray she saw.

“Ya really think it’s wise to eat somethin’?” Applebloom watched her friend closely waiting for anything unusual to happen.

“There are about fifty of these snacks on the tray. Only one of them is…special. I am willing to take my chances, besides anything is better than waiting for something to happen.” Scootaloo chewed the appetizer and was grateful that it took away some of the taste from the horrid drink earlier. Shrugging the other crusader joined their friend with eating some of the offered food.

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It didn’t take long for Spike to find the ponies he was looking for. Other nobles merely gave him a curious glance as he ran past them. Twilight was talking to her brother and his wife when he finally joined them.

“Hey Spike. How did it go?” Twilight Sparkle asked her assistant and had to wait for an answer while the dragon greeted the Prince and Princess.

“Joe says hi. And he gave me a box full of donuts for us to eat on the train ride back. It’s in my room for now.” Spike explained. He turned his head in time to see Twilight’s parents join them in their little group. “Hello there…mmmpff.”

Any others sounds were muffled as Twilight’s mother hugged the little dragon close to her chest.

“How is my little Spikey doing?” she asked and released him for her hug.

“Just super!” Spike smiled at Twilight’s parents who in a way were his as well.

“I hope Twilight doesn’t make you work too much. Having fun is important sometimes. Something my dear daughter sometimes likes to forget.” Twilight’s mother smiled at the little dragon.

“I know how to have fun, mom.” Twilight commented her mother’s mild chastising dryly.

“Oh I remember a time when you would get up to the weirdest things. That was before you started reading all the time.” Her mother smiled as she remembered back to a time when Twilight did not only read and study, as unbelievable as that may have seemed today. “Remember the time you went searching for treasure in your auntie’s vase? That really big tall vase?”

“Mom, you are not going to…” Twilight couldn’t finish her protest as her mother merely continued with her recollection.

“You got stuck halfway inside. I remember it like yesterday, coming in through the door and being greeted by my daughter’s flank sticking out of a vase. Not something you would expect to see.” The family chuckled at the little tale she had told with a smile, save for Twilight who was slightly blushing.

“Moooooooom.” Twilight protested with an almost whispering whine. She would swear that parents would remember these types of embarrassing stories during social gatherings on purpose. One day she would have to research if her theories were correct, hopefully involving somepony else’s parents.

“Oh you sound just like your brother used to.” Twilight’s mother changed her target. Shining Armor coughed into his drink.

“Mom!” he quietly warned, but was happily ignored by his parent.

“Oh, but it is true. When we didn’t buy you that toy sword you wanted or when you refused to eat your sprouts or go to bed on time. There was a reason we called you Whiney Shiney when you were a foal.” It was Shining Armor’s time to be embarrassed, much to Twilight’s own amusement.

Any protest died in his throat as the damage had already been done. A look over to Cadence revealed that he most certainly wouldn’t be hearing the last of that tale for some time. The mischievous twinkle in her eyes along with the wide grin told him that she wouldn’t be forgetting that story any time soon.

“Parents….” He muttered into his drink, but couldn’t help a small smile forming on his lips.

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Minutes passed uneventful. The crusaders had had their fill of small snacks and had found a table offering glasses of orange juice that they gladly accepted. They were beginning to lose hope that Princess Luna’s plan would work. Then somewhere somepony in the party brayed like a mule.

High above Canterlot in the highest tower the Princess of the Night observed the party far down below through a telescope. Her lips curled into a smile as she saw confused faces on the ponies down below. “And thus it begins.”

Canterlot’s high society exceeded at ignoring anything that would offend them. They would voice their offence in a close circle of friends later, but during a prestigious event such as this anything out of the norm would be duly ignored until it went away. This ability of theirs would be tested mightily over the next half hour.

The noble unicorn stallion wearing a top hat and elegant jacket did not know what suddenly overcame him. It started with his legs twitching, before he knew what was happening he started bouncing in place. The small group of ponies around him carefully stepped a few paces back. He let out a gasp of surprise as a pink pony wearing a dress decorated with candy started bouncing along beside him.

“Ooooh! I see you like to bounce as well! I looooove to bounce all the time, but Rarity and Twilight said I wasn’t to bounce, jump or skip this evening unless somepony else started first. And now I found you!! We can show these ponies how to have a proper party!” Pinkie Pie smiled her trademark wide smile at the noble pony. He wasn’t too enthusiastic about her proposal. In fact he was a little bit terrified about his current predicament.

Ponies watched in disbelief as the stallion tried to bounce away from the pink menace, to no avail as Pinkie bounced after him in hot pursuit.

“Where are you going? We’re bouncing buddies! Booooouuuuuunnnncing buddies!”

_____________________________________________________________________

On the other side of the garden Rarity was having a pleasant chat with Fancy Pants about latest trends and styles, when Fleur de Lis came rushing up to them.

“Fancy! Something terrible has happened!” Fleur seemed shaken and was for once not posing as she spoke to her fiancée.

“Fleur? Dear, what is the matter?” Fancy Pants replied and turned his attention fully to the distraught mare.

“I can’t lie!” she burst out, but still quietly enough for no other pony to hear.

“You can’t….lie?” Fancy Pants raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what to make of her statement. “And that means?”

“Just now I said that Hoity Toity is an overrated hack who leeches off the talent of other talented designers and severely underpays them while lining his own coffers to buy more ridiculous wigs like the one he is wearing tonight.” Fleur explained very quickly, gaining the undivided attention of Rarity in the process who currently was working for Hoity Toity.

“And that…” Fancy Pants began, but was interrupted by the model.

“Fancy, I said that to his face.” Fleur’s eyes shifted nervously around. Rarity took note that her posh canterlot accent had also suddenly disappeared.

“Oh dear.” Fancy Pants couldn’t help but smirk. It had been a long time coming that somepony told Hoity Toity some truths, the timing was just very unfortunate. A thought entered his mind.

“So you suddenly cannot lie? What do you think of me?” Deep down he knew that she truly loved him. Money or fame had never been a factor in their relationship, as they both had enough of either before they had even met. Still it intrigued him to hear what she might have to say about him.

“Your mustache always tickles me when we kiss and makes me want to sneeze.”

Well that wasn’t so bad. He thought to himself.

“But I like the tickling feeling when you….”

“Yes, ok…” he hastily interrupted Fleur before she could finish the sentence, much to Rarity’s dismay as she found the sudden turn of events most interesting. “I shall see if I can’t contain the damage done somewhat. Why don’t you stay here with Rarity for the moment.”

Fancy Pants trotted away searching for Hoity Toity to do some damage control. Fleur sighed heavily and tried to relax. Rarity casually stood beside her and leaned in closer.

“Tell me, Fleur. What was that about Hoity Toity you mentioned just now?” Rarity battered her eyelashes in a friendly manner. Fleur winced as she couldn’t stop herself from answering.

“He buys fashions designed by ponies all over Equestria and sells them for the quadruple amount he bought them for. If not maybe even more.” Fleur explained.

“Even now? I thought the business wasn’t flowing as well as it had previously.” Rarity was still smiling, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“No that’s not true. In fact the fashion business is booming. It’s never been better than right now.” Fleur continued and nervously held watch for anypony that might be listening in to their hushed conversation.

Rarity’s smile turned into a very angry frown. She had talked to Hoity Toity earlier that evening and had listened to him complaining about the decline in the fashion business. He had gone on to say that he wouldn’t be able to pay her more for her designs and in fact would have to pay her a third less instead. The fashionista would have loved to find the pompous pony right then and there to give him a very specific piece of her mind, preferably the piece with the horn sticking out of it. Yet she swallowed her anger, as the unexpected opportunity presenting itself in Fleur was too good to miss. She would deal with Hoity Toity at a later time.

“So the business is booming. What do you think of my designs?” she asked sweetly.

“I love them, though I am disappointed you do not make them in my size.” Fleur was taller and more slender than the average mare. And it was true that Rarity did not make dresses in her size, due to apparent lack of interest in the market. Or so she had been told at least by a current business partner. “It would be nice if you didn’t have such a hack for a business partner.”

“I was thinking the very same thing.” Rarity said dryly. “Perhaps you would like to come to Ponyville one day. I’m sure I could make you a stunning ensemble with ease.”

“I…I would actually like that.” Fleur relaxed somewhat. So far she had not been asked anything too bad by the white unicorn at her side. In fact she had often talked to Fancy Pants if he could not take Rarity as a business partner himself. That way she would be able to model for somepony who’s designs she actually liked for once. The business world in Equestria was however a savagely fought battlefield and if anything then Hoity Toity excelled at keeping his partners on his side. Usually by lies and deceit, but it worked nevertheless.

Rarity smiled at the tall model. Things were looking good for her and her mood picked up as a result.

“Can you tell me anything interesting about Photo Finish?” Rarity asked innocently while Fleur winced.

__________________________________________________________________

The three fillies were struggling to keep their laughter as quiet as possible. As the poison joke slowly took effect on the ponies unfortunate enough to eat one of the prepared appetizers, their mood began to rise. They were currently watching a pegasus mare trying in vain to keep her wings from flaring out. In the end she covered up her wings with folds of her dress, the effect being that she looked massively huge.

“This is awesome!” Scootaloo said to her friends and laughed as the very wide pegasus mare knocked over another stallion accidentally by turning around. Applebloom laughed along with her and anxiously awaited the next victim to make his or her appearance.

Sweetie Belle stopped laughing when she spotted a familiar figure amongst the guests. She watched as Prince Blueblood paraded through the garden, entirely oblivious to anything around him. Silently she wished that he would eat one of the tainted items.

“Let’s follow him and see what happens to him!” she said and pointed a hoof at the supreme snob. Her friends gladly followed her and the trio began carefully stalking Prince Blueblood, always making sure to stay out of sight.

___________________________________________________________________

Jet Set and his wife Upper Crust were appalled by the behavior of some of the guests. His mood soured some more when he noticed an orange mare trotting up to them.

“Oh dear. It’s that country mare from Ponyville.” He whispered to his wife.

“That uncouth country bumpkin? Don’t tell me she’s coming over here to talk.” Upper Crust sneered at the thought of being seen with that individual.

“Let’s hope she doesn’t say anything and moves along. I don’t think I can take much of her horrid accent.” He made a point to not look at the approaching mare.

“Howdy!” Applejack greeted the pair in a friendly manner. “Good ta see some familiar faces.”

“Do we know each other?” Jet Set asked and hoped the earthpony could take a hint from his frosty demeanor. He felt a strange prickly feeling in his throat for a moment.

“Yeah sure. We met at th’ garden party that Fancy Pants fella held last year. Remember?” Applejack was well aware that their first meeting had been a little awkward. Most likely due that her initial thoughts on garden parties involved actual gardening.

“Ah could hardly fergit that pardy.” Jet Set stared blankly at the earthpony in front of him. Had he really just mimicked her horrid accent? A quick glance to his wife told him that he had indeed just said those words, as she stared at him with a mixture of surprise and disgust.

“Hey, yer not from around these here parts either are ya? Ah was beginnin’ ta feel a bit outta th’ place as th’ only pony from th’ country.” Applejack smiled at the stallion.

“Ah was born ‘n rais’d ‘ere in good ol’ C'nterrrlot.” He replied hoping that his change of speech had been a mere accident before.

“Really? Ah couldn’t tell. Yer accent is even thicker than mine.” Applejack joked earning a nervous chuckle from the pair.

“Maghllbfff!” Upper Crust’s contribution to the discussion was less than intelligible. It wasn’t really her fault as her tongue had suddenly doubled in size making clear speech impossible.

“Beg pardon?” Applejack turned her attention to the mare who had half her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth.

“Blarghl. Magrl blff. Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!“ Her outburst just earned her confused looks. Upper Crust tried stuffing her tongue back into her mouth with a hoof.

“Ya might wanna lay off the drinks Lady.” Applejack’s advice was met with an icy glare.

_________________________________________________________________

“This is a really strange party.” Rainbow Dash commented as she stood beside Fluttershy. The pegasi had declined to join in any conversations and had rather taken up post next to a buffet table, quietly eating a few select items and talking. Talking meaning that Rainbow Dash would comment on some of the snobbish behavior and lack of Wonderbolts, while Fluttershy would politely listen and every once in a while give an understanding murmur.

As they watched Pinkie Pie bounce after an also bouncing stallion on the other side of the party, Rainbow Dash’s interest shifted back to the party. She welcomed the change and began laughing at some of the actions performed by the guests.

“Let’s go around and see what else is going on here.” She said to her silent companion as she watched a mare in an elaborate dress trying to hide her suddenly elongated ears under a fancy hat.

Rainbow Dash trotted after the mare, but halted when she noticed Fluttershy not following her. The pale yellow pagasus remained where she was with a slightly worried expression on her face.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you want to come with me?” Rainbow Dash asked and trotted the few paces back to her friend.

“I….I can’t.” Fluttershy stuttered.

“For the umpteenth time, there are no changelings going attack and nopony is looking at you funnily. Come on, let’s go.” Rainbow Dash wrapped a foreleg around Fluttershy’s neck and began moving her away from where they had been sitting. The timid mare complied for a moment, but after only two steps Rainbow Dash felt some resistance. It seemed as if her friend was being held back.

“I said I can’t” Fluttershy stated weakly.

“Why?”

“My tail….” Rainbow Dash turned around and looked past her friend at the mentioned problem.

“Why’d you wrap it around the table?” Sure enough Fluttershy’s tail was securely wrapped around one of the table’s legs.

“I didn’t. It did it by itself.” Fluttershy looked worried and bit her lip. Rainbow Dash slowly turned her head to look at her friends face again.

“By itself.” She stated flatly and arched an eyebrow.

“Y…yes.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and trotted behind Fluttershy to inspect the appendage gone rogue. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it by looking at it. She carefully touched it with the tip of a hoof, when nothing happened she began unwrapping it from the table’s leg. After a moment she held the end of the tail in her hoof, carefully inspecting it in case there was something going on. The pink soft strands of hair slowly drifted off from her hoof behaving just like anypony’s hair would.

Rainbow Dash shrugged and turned around. As she took a step past Fluttershy, something curled around her foreleg tripping her.

“Oof!” Facedown on the ground she groaned. Rainbow Dash lifted her head to see what had caused her sudden introduction of her face with the ground. Sure enough her right foreleg was wrapped up in Fluttershy’s tail.

“Why did you trip me?” she asked and held her foreleg up for Fluttershy to see.

“It wasn’t me. It did it by itself.”

“Oh come on Fluttershy, that story is just…” Her words trailed off as the pink hair unwrapped itself from her foreleg. She stared at it in disbelief as it moved in a way no pony’s tail should even be able to move. It reminded her of a snake. With a foreleg still raised she observed and it slowly raised itself to her eyelevel. Suddenly it darted to her left foreleg, wrapped itself around it and yanked it out from under her.

“Oof!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Fluttershy apologized quietly to her friend face down on the ground. Her tail snaked its way away from the literally grounded pegasus.

Rainbow Dash pushed herself up with a snarl. She tuned out the apologies being uttered by Fluttershy and focused her attention on her attacker. It seemed harmless enough as it simply hung there where tails usually hung. But Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to be fooled again, that tail had started it and she was going to end it.

Without saying anything Rainbow Dash pounced the suddenly sentient tail, an action that was commented by a quiet “Eep!” from Fluttershy. Before she could get her hooves on it, the tail swished away in amazing speed. Rainbow Dash felt it suddenly tickle the underside of her belly.

“Hahahaha! I mean grrrrrr.” She jumped back out of reach to get a good view of the enemy. Taking aim she launched herself back at it. “Come here you!”

This time her efforts paid off as she held the squirming tail between her front hooves. She glared at the strands of pink hair and suddenly felt rather stupid having begun a fight with a tail in the first place. Fluttershy kept apologizing and was even trying to reason with her own tail. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous this little escapade was.

The tail however seemed to still have some fight in it. It made its move by stretching out from between Rainbow’s hooves and lightly tickling her nose.

“HaaaaaaatCHOOOO!” Rainbow Dash let go of the tail during her sneeze. The tail now back in control quickly wrapped itself around both of Rainbow Dash’s forelegs effectively binding them together. “Hey!”

“Oh my goodness, please stop. You are normally such a good well behaved tail. Why are you doing this? Is it something you want? Maybe a nice brushing?” Fluttershy’s usual course of action with wild creatures fell on deaf ears.

The end of the tail seemed pleased, at least that was Rainbow Dash’s impression as it waved around in front of her face. It began taunting the captured Pegasus by lightly slapping her cheeks. Rainbow Dash snarled at the rebellious hair.

“Oh you asked for it now.” Rainbow Dash tried biting the taunting tail, yet it slipped away fast than she could get a hold of it. It peeked out from behind her bound forelegs and did a little waving motion. Rainbow Dash’s head shot forward and she missed it by a hair. Then the tail peeked out on the other side of her forelegs and again Rainbow Dash just barely missed it. This game of peek-a-boo lasted for a few seconds during which Fluttershy kept pleading with her tail to stop the shenanigans and be well behaved.

Finally Rainbow Dash had managed to outwit her opponent by feigning her attack and diverting it to the other side at the last moment. Whether that was a victory to be proud of was still up for debate.

“’ave you now!” she growled between her teeth biting down on the tip of Fluttershy’s tail.

“Girls! What are you doing?” Twilight asked as she stood in front of her two friends in disbelief.

“It started it!” Rainbow Dash said in her defense. Twilight’s eye twitched slightly in response.

“I know you are unhappy that none of the Wonderbolts are here tonight, but could you please find some other way to alleviate your boredom?” Twilight sighed and trotted away while shaking her head, leaving the two pegasi alone with their hairy problem.

_________________________________________________________________

Twilight returned to where her parents, Spike, Shining Armor and Cadence were standing and chatting. Her errand of procuring some glasses filled with juice had been successful, evident by the six glasses in her magical grip. She levitated one each to the thirsty ponies and thirsty dragon.

They raised their glasses to a toast to the family and took a sip. Twilight felt a bit hungry so she levitated a small bird made of seaweed over to her from the nearby table. The salty taste did not mix very well with orange juice. Her not to thrilled expression caused the group to chuckle.

“That reminds me of the face Shining Armor always used to make when we tried making him eat his broccoli.” Twilight’s mother smiled that certain smile that their children feared. The smile of a parent about the regale her listeners with a tale most embarrassing to the parties involved. Twilight was glad it wasn’t a story about her. Shining Armor had resigned to his fate some stories ago. What made him feel uneasy was how intently Cadence listened to each and every one.

During her telling of the tale from the past the attention of the ponies listening shifted away. They exchanged nervous glances as something was happening to their mother.

“Erm, Mom?” Shining Armor tried to break his mother’s retelling of the time he had caused havoc in Kindergarden.

“Oh hush, I haven’t even gotten to the part where you eat all the crayons.” She tried to bat away her son’s objections, but found that her hooves didn’t obey her will. “What? What’s going on?”

“You’re….dancing.” Twilight stated flatly.

“I am? Well it’s about time we made this party a more interesting one, isn’t it?” Twilight’s mother smiled and embraced her sudden urge to cut up the nonexistent dancefloor. Twilight barely managed not to facehoof. Something she shared in common with her brother. Much to the siblings chagrin their father joined his wife with some dance moves of his own.

A mystery was solved that evening. The mystery of where Twilight Sparkle learned to dance. One look at the rather unorthodox moves being shown by her mother solved the mystery instantly. Much to her dismay her father seemed to have adopted the unique styles himself.

To the surprise of ponies in attendance and that were actually paying attention to their surroundings, Princess Cadence joined her in-law in an impromptu dance session.

“Come on Shiney.” She smiled at her husband once again with that cheeky twinkle in her eyes.

“Well you know what they say. If you can’t beat them, join them.” Shining Armor simply couldn’t resist and to Twilight’s surprise started dancing himself. Before she could say or do anything Spike joined in as well.

“Et tu, Spike?” Twilight murmured to herself and downed the rest of the orange juice in one gulp.

__________________________________________________________________

High above Canterlot Princess Luna wiped a tear from her eye. As a precautionary measure she had added a soundproofing spell to the magical bubble surrounding the observation platform. Her at times booming laughter would have most likely spooked all of Canterlot, let alone given away her possible involvement in the proceedings down below.

It wasn’t just the random effects of the poison joke taking effect, but rather her older sister’s reaction to the events. Countless years of ruling the land had given her the ability to never lose her cool in instances of unusualness. Now that mask was beginning to slowly erode away.

It had begun in a very subtle manner. First there was a slight twitch of the ears, soon followed by a twitch in her eyes. Now she was even pacing about. Celestia had given up her position in the center of the garden and was slowly circling around amongst her guests. Most likely to just be doing something as not to burst and drop that royal façade.

“What does thou think of thine party now, dear sister?” she said aloud in the old Canterlot speech pattern. “Have I not doubled thine fun?”

_________________________________________________________________

One small white unicorn was not laughing. In fact she was getting frustrated.

The cutie mark crusaders had been following Prince Blueblood for a while now, desperately hoping he would be affected by the poison joke at this time. Yet he seemed to be unaffected by the appetizers he had consumed up until now.

The trio of fillies were hiding under a large table and spying of the pompous prince as he drank some punch. Applebloom and Scootaloo were having a great time, laughing at all the randomness around them. Yet it disturbed them that Sweetie Belle wasn’t joining in on the fun, but seemed to be rather fixated with Prince Blueblood.

“Come on Sweetie Belle, laugh a little. This is the best party ever.” Scootaloo nudged her silent companion with her head.

“What’s with ya and that Prince anyhow?” Applebloom asked.

“He was mean to us and especially mean to my sister!” Sweetie Belle said calmly. There was a brief pause as Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened in shock. Not so much because of what she had said, but rather how she had said it.

Scootaloo and Applebloom started laughing uncontrollably. Sweetie Belle held a hoof to her mouth unsure of what was going on.

“S…say somethin’ else, Sweetie B…Belle.” Applebloom had trouble breathing from laughing so hard.

“I…what’s going on?” Instead of her usual sometimes even angelic voice every word she spoke was in a deep bass laden stallion’s voice. Not unlike something that had befallen Fluttershy when she had been influenced by poison joke.

“Hahahahahaha! Stop it!” Scootaloo was holding her belly at this point.

“I can’t. What is this?” Sweetie Belle tried clearing her throat. The noise sounded like a giraffe gargling rocks. Scootaloo was fighting for breath while rolling on the floor.

“Ah’m guessin’ ya got the bad one earlier.” Applebloom was correct with her guess. Sweetie Belle had indeed been so unlucky to have eaten the single tainted appetizer on the tray they had snacked from.

“Oh great. How long is this supposed to last?” she asked and failed her forelegs over her head in frustration.

“The Princess said it would last only fer about ten minutes. Ya will be back to yer normal self soon enough.” Applebloom tried to calm her friend down a bit.

“Wait, wait, wait. I gotta try something.” Scootaloo didn’t bother explaining what she had in mind, but rather jumped onto Sweetie Belle’s back and gave her a squeeze like she had done back in the kitchen.

“HOONK!”

The pegasus howled with laughter and slid off her friends back to the floor. Applebloom soon joined her with tears streaming from her eyes.

“This isn’t funny.” Sweetie Belle’s growled statement proved the opposite as her friends were soon gasping for air. With a huff she turned her attention back to observing Blueblood, who was still making a show of himself while drinking punch.

“That was the best thing all evening.” Scootaloo had calmed down a bit, her face still flushed red and breathing heavily. Sweetie Belle merely grunted in a deep bass voice.

“Ya know, Ah bet ya could use yer voice fer somthin’.” Applebloom stated as she rose from the ground.

“Like how?” Sweetie Belle looked at her friends and rolled her eyes as they began snickering once more.

“She’s right. You could say anything right now and nopony would know that it was you.” Scootaloo tried to think who they could surprise with Sweetie’s new voice.

The unicorn had already a target in mind and she smiled a little devilish smile.

“Prince Blueblood is an airheaded oaf with as much style as a moldy carrot!” Sweetie Belle said very loudly from under the table.

“HA HA!” came a reply from somewhere to their right that sounded very much like Rarity.

To her dismay the target remained unmoved, silently sipping his punch.

“Grrrr….what does it take to get to that pony.” Sweetie Belle rumbled to herself. What she didn’t know was that under any other circumstances Prince Blueblood would now be beside himself with outrage. He didn’t react to Sweetie Belle’s outcry due to the fact that had indeed been affected by the effects of the poison joke. He was for the moment deaf. The joke somewhat backfired as he rarely paid any attention to what other ponies said anyway and didn’t even notice that he was deaf.

“We could ask the Princess for help.” Scootaloo suggested.

“Good idea. Let’s go where she can see us.” Sweetie Belle led the way from under the table to a more open position next to a rosebush. She began waving towards the tower.

It only took a few moments until she felt a tingling sensation around her head. Suddenly Princess Luna’s voice appeared right beside her, although she was still high above.

“Yes, my child? You can speak to me and I will hear.”

“We need your help with something.” Sweetie Belle said and waited for a reply. For a moment there was only silence and she began to wonder if the Princess had heard her. “Princess? Are you still there?”

“Yes….” The answer sounded strained. “Ahem…yes I am here. How can I help you….”

The voice was cut off suddenly. Sweetie Belle had a suspicion why the Princess had ended the transmission so abruptly.

“Are you laughing?” she asked and frowned to where she suspected Luna would be standing.

“Err…no. There was something in my throat. How can your Princess assist you?”

Sweetie Belle already had a plan in her mind, but for that she needed a certain item. She hoped the Princess would be able to supply her with it. The crusaders laughed as Sweetie Belle quietly explain her idea to the Princess. After a moment her voice came back into Sweetie Belle’s ears.

“I shall procure the item you have requested. Meet me back in the hallway in fifteen minutes.” With a faint popping sound the magic surrounding the unicorns head vanished.

“Eeeeexcellent.” Sweetie Belle rubbed her front hooves together in anticipation.

__________________________________________________________________

“I think Discord may be around.” Twilight Sparkle stood beside her mentor Princess Celestia and voiced her concerns about the strange occurrences all around her.

“No, I do not think it is Discord.” Celestia was watching Twilight’s ears very closely.

“Are you sure? Because this would be just his kind of thing I believe.” Twilight looked around at the ponies trying to ignore all the randomness around them.

“He is currently near the Griffon Kingdom I believe.” Celestia watched as a bubble rose out from Twilight’s left ear. At first she had thought she was seeing things, but now there was no doubt. There were indeed bubbles coming out of her student’s ears and the unicorn seemed oblivious to the fact. “I would have detected his magic if he were here.”

“I guess you are right. What should we do about this?” Twilight asked and flicked one ear absentmindedly, causing a small stream of bubbles to rise up. Celestia felt her eye twitch at the sight, but she kept her cool.

“I believe we are dealing with the effects of poison joke. It was only a small diluted amount so the effects should wear off soon.” Celestia had explained. She had come to this conclusion while eating a tainted appetizer a few moments ago. Her magical senses had detected the foreign substance immediately and neutralized it without any problems. How the poison joke had found its way here remained a mystery for the time being.

“So we just wait it out? Shouldn’t we administer some kind of antidote?” Twilight looked up to her mentor.

“As long as nopony is harmed I see no need to intervene. Please, enjoy the rest of the evening. I am sure all this will be over soon.” Celestia kept a straight face while more bubbles began leaking out from her student’s ears.

“As you wish, Princess.” Twilight bowed and made her way back to where her parents were, trailing a stream of bubbles behind her. Celestia pursed her lips and continued on her rounds through the garden.

She ignored as many strange things as possible. Calmly talking to ponies and radiating an aura of control over everything. Yet her control was wearing thin. Every once in a while she felt the corners of her mouth twitch. Princess Celestia passed a unicorn mare with large rabbit ears and politely nodded to her. She spotted her youngest guests by a rosebush and silently sighed relieved that they at least seemed unaffected.

“My little ponies.” She greeted them with a friendly smile. The trio bowed in respect to the Princess of the Sun. “Are you enjoying the festivities this evening?”

“Yes, yer Highness.” Applebloom bowed once more.

“We are having a lot of fun.” Scootaloo smiled at the Princess.

Sweetie Belle remained silent and only smiled.

“And what about you, my Dear?” Celestia asked politely.

“Yes.” Came the answer in a deep bass voice from the little unicorn. Celestia froze for a moment, not daring to breathe.

“I mean, yes, your Majesty.” Sweetie Belle corrected her blunt answer from before. If Rarity had found out she had been so short with the Princess no less, she wouldn’t have a minutes rest for weeks on end.

Celestia remained totally still. This was indeed unexpected and she was fighting the toughest battle yet. She could feel her lips desperately trying to form a grin and the air in the lungs fought to escape her lips in form of a laugh. Her iron will wrestled the laugh down for the moment and she formed her lips into a friendly smile.

“I am glad to hear that. Please, enjoy the rest of the evening.” She calmly said and stuck her head in the rosebush beside the fillies. The entire bush started to glow in a golden light as Celestia performed a spell, a soundproofing spell to be more precise.

Princess Luna watched as her sister stuck her head in the rosebush. She watched with glee as her sisters body heaved with silent laughter. Too bad she had been near the rosebush and not out somewhere without a convenient hiding spot. The fillies beside her sister looked at each other with confusion and carefully tip hoofed away from her.

“Seems like you are having fun, ‘Tia.” She smirked as her older sister pulled her head out from the rosebush and magically removed some leaves from her ethereal mane. Celestia seemed more in control again and began circling once more around the garden. Her little slip had gone unnoticed by anypony, save for the three fillies.

Luna checked the time by looking up at the position of the moon. She would still have to procure the item that Sweetie Belle had requested. A small task as such, but do to it unnoticed might have been tricky. Thankfully Celestia was distracted so a small conjuring spell would go unnoticed.

__________________________________________________________________

Right on time the crusaders entered the hallway. Princess Luna was already waiting for them.

“Do you have it?” Sweetie Belle asked, her voice having returned to normal.

“Indeed I do. Pray tell when do you plan to use it?” Luna inquired and used her magic to hide the item in Sweetie Belle’s dress.

“When we all sit down for dinner.” She replied while whispering.

“Hmmm. You do not have much time.” Luna mused and thought of a way to assist the little unicorn. Perhaps the fun would continue for a bit longer if she helped her with her plan. “There are guards inside as well. Come with me.”

Princess Luna led them through the hallway, through a large door and halfway through the hallway behind it. They stopped at a large set of double doors.

“Behind these doors is the room where we shall dine tonight. The guests will enter through the doors to the right from the garden. I shall distract the guards and lead them out through the doors on the left. You have to be quick about placing your device. You may have to reckon with guards patrolling this hallway as well.” Luna explained quickly.

“We can handle any guards coming.” Scootaloo said and Applebloom nodded in agreement.

“Then I’ll put it into place.” Sweetie Belle confirmed the plan.

Without wasting any more time Luna entered through the doors they were standing at and marched inside. She left a small gap open and the fillies could hear her talk to the guards.

“Guards! Follow me for some last minute instructions.” Her voice echoed throughout the large room, even though she had not raised her voice very much. Once they heard the doors slam shut, Sweetie Belle darted inside.

The sound of her small hooves on the polished wood seemed awfully loud to her as she raced towards the large long table in the center of the room. She quickly hopped up on the nearest chair and hoped to find name tags or some other way to see what the seating arrangement was. To her dismay there was nothing of the kind to be seen.

Sweetie Belle looked along the table trying to figure out where Prince Blueblood could possibly be seated later on. Since both Princesses would be attending the dinner, she assumed that they would be sitting at both ends of the table. That left only about fifty or more seats. She groaned at not having remembered to ask Luna where he would be sitting.

She quickly hopped down from the chair and had a look under the table. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until she saw a golden cushion. Nimbly avoiding the chairs and legs of the table she scooted over to the golden cushion. After a quick glance out from under the table she saw that she was in the middle of the table. That seemed fitting, as the Prince seemed to love being the center of attention. And he was vain enough to have an extra cushion placed for him.

“Time for payback.” Sweetie Belle muttered and removed the item from the folds of her dress. It was a whoopee cushion. With a few quick breaths she prepared the pranking device and carefully slid it under the golden cushion. Satisfied with her work she scampered out from under the table and headed back towards the gap in the door.

She slid in the gap and out the door the moment the other doors opened and the guards came back into the room led by Princess Luna. She walked over to the door the fillies were behind and joined them in the hallway beyond.

“So did everything work as you hoped?” she asked the slightly panting Sweetie Belle. The unicorn nodded in response.

They opened the door a little bit to be able to peek inside. Luna carefully placed a soundproofing spell over the crack as a precautionary measure in case the fillies burst out laughing. About a minute later the doors leading to the garden were opened as the first guests arrived inside the room. Two servants guided them to their seats.

“So that’s why there weren’t any nametags.” Sweetie Belle said quietly.

“Who are you trying to prank with your device?” Luna asked.

“Prince Blueblood. He was mean to us and was really mean to my sister at the Gala.” Sweetie Belle explained with a frown. She really hoped this would work.

“And where exactly did you put your device?”

“On that middle chair. I figured he loves being the center of attention so that’s where I put it. Under the golden cushion.”

“Golden…cushion.” Luna’s eyes widened and a smile began to form. “Your reasoning was sound, alas he usually sits at one of the ends. That cushion happens to mark Celestia’s seat.”

Sweetie Belle spun around, pupils shrunken to pinpricks. At first she merely stammered nothingness as her voice refused to work.

“Cel…Celestia? Princess Celestia!?” Sweetie Belle let out a whimper.

“Oh hay!” Applebloom cursed and covered her mouth with a hoof.

“Is there anything you can do?” Scootaloo asked Luna, who only shook her head.

“Any action on my part might only raise suspicion. Do not worry, they cannot possible know who put that there.” Princess Luna tried to calm the fillies down.

They watched as the room filled up with guests, each standing behind their assigned chair and waiting for everypony to be shown their place.

“Where are the fillies?” Twilight asked as she entered the room beside Applejack.

“Off ta use th’ little fillies room. Ah guess they’ll be along shortly.” Applejack let herself be shown the way to her seat, while Twilight waited for her parents to come inside.

Finally the last guest was waiting behind their respective chairs, when Princess Celestia entered the room. She was glad that the manic events of the outside part of the festivities was over. Now they could all have a nice relaxing meal, hopefully without any surprises.

“Please, dear guests. Be seated and enjoy tonight’s main course.” She patiently waited until every single one of her guests was seated, only then did she move around her chair to sit down.

Time slowed down for the four onlookers behind the door. Sweetie Belle was starting to hyperventilate, while her two friends looked on in shock unable to avert their eyes from the impending disaster.

With each centimeter Celestia came closer to sitting down, Luna’s smile grew wider.

Chapter 5

*FFFFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPTPTTTTPTPTPPTPPTTTTBPBPBPTBTTTTT*

Time froze.

Nopony dared move, blink or even breathe.

For a brief moment the room resembled a still painting, even Celestia’s ever flowing mane seemed to have stopped its movements for the moment.

Then Princess Celestia made one mistake. She carefully shifted her weight.

*PPPPPFFFFFWWWWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEHHHprrtblblbl*

The whine caused by the last of the air escaping from the whoopee cushion echoed around the silent room.

Ponies began to glance around nervously, but avoided looking at their ruler. This kind of social embarrassment would have been met with harsh criticisms and an exclusion from any future events for a long time. Seeing as it had been the ruler of Equestria whom had befallen a most unfortunate accident, the noble ponies were unsure how to react.

__________________________________________________________________

Twilight Sparkle sat wide-eyed amongst her friends, her mind not willing to process what just had happened. An intake of breath next to her alarmed her that she had to do something. With amazing speed her left hoof shot to the side and clamped Spike’s mouth shut before he had the chance to say something or worse to start laughing.

She let her eyes dart across the ponies in her vicinity. Next to her Shining Armor sat, beside him his wife Princess Cadence. Opposite them were their parents who seemingly still were frozen in shock.

Opposite Twilight Pinkie sat and seemed thoughtful, an odd moment for the pink party pony. Next to her was Applejack’s place. Twilight noticed that she had pulled her trademark hat down a bit and she was holding one hoof to her mouth. Very briefly Applejack locked eyes with Twilight, the unicorn noticing the amusement glinting in the farmpony’s eyes.

Did she think this was funny?

Two places were currently unoccupied to Applejack’s right. There were reserved for Applebloom and Sweetie Belle respectively once they arrived. Opposite the fillies and to Twilight’s left was Spike’s place and next to him the currently vacant seat for Scootaloo.

Next to Scootaloo’s seat another pegasus sat. Twilight shot Rainbow Dash an angry glare, as she heard a suppressed snicker try to escape her lips. Rainbow Dash didn’t notice the look as she had her eyes closed and was fighting off an attack of the giggles by covering her mouth with a hoof.

Opposite Rainbow Dash was Fluttershy’s seat, the timid Pegasus had her head bent down and covered up her face with her pink mane.

She seems to be….is she smiling?

Indeed a small smile had formed on the pale yellow mare’s lips. Twilight’s eye twitched in response.

Rarity sat to Fluttershy’s right and stared blankly at the napkin on her table. An action that was copied by the two ponies opposite her, Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis.

Twilight carefully risked a look at her mentor and ruler of Equestria. The Princess also just stared into nothingness and didn’t move an inch.

What’s should I do?

____________________________________________________________________

Twilight's last thought was shared by almost everypony in attendance, even the guards dotted around the room were seemingly unsure how to react. One pony in particular felt the need to act.

Prince Blueblood was desperately thinking of the proper way on how to react to this monumental social faux pas. Had it been any other pony he would have sneered at them and motioned to have the offender removed from the room, preferably dragged from it by the guards. Seeing as this was the Princess that particular method of handling things would not work.

That left only one other course of action in his mind at least. He began concentrating hard.

“Hnnnnnnnngngngnggg.”

The Prince’s efforts were clearly heard amongst the attendees who were still too stunned to make a sound. Their eyes slowly moved over to the Prince at the end of the table. His face was scrunched up in effort.

*Ppppprrrrtt!*

Prince Blueblood smiled smugly at the ponies around him. His reasoning was to side with Celestia in her social misstep and thus possibly gain favor with her. Slowly the same thought made its way into the heads of other nobles. The sound of ponies concentrating hard on their bodily functions rose like a swarm of particularly angry bees.

___________________________________________________________________

Twilight didn’t know what to do let alone think. She felt Spike struggling on her hoof trying to possibly laugh. That would not happen if she could help it. Her eyes darted over her friends and family around her.

Her parents sat motionless with lips pressed tightly shut. Shining Armor had fallen back on years of training and service in the royal guard and blankly stared straight ahead at nothing. It wasn’t easy for him to keep his reserve thanks to Princess Cadence who had her head pressed against his side, obscuring her face from Twilight’s look.

Applejack was now biting down on the brim of her hat, Twilight felt anger well up inside her.

How dare she be amused by this!

A grunt to her left made her whip her head around to find the offending pony. Rainbow Dash had both of her hooves now pressed against her mouth and her eyes closed with a tear slowly trickling down from the corner of her right eye. Her face was also beginning to turn purple in the effort of not laughing out loud.

At least Rarity had the decency to have fainted melodramatically and was now leaning against Fluttershy. The pegasus fanned her friend with a hoof, but was still smiling that small smile. Twilight’s ears folded back at the sight.

Fancy Pants had resorted to clean his monocle with a piece of cloth and tried to block out what was happening all around him. Like Shining Armor Fleur had training to fall back on to keep her expression as neutral as possible. Being Equestria’s premier model meant she would have to express emotions or hide them regardless of the circumstances during her numerous photo shootings.

A grunt from her left caused Twilight’s head to spin around, she was determined to not let this entire thing become even more of a fiasco than it already was. To her surprise it had not been Pinkie Pie who had grunted, but it had come from Princess Cadence. She was pressing her face into her husband’s side to suppress any sounds made, but her shuddering shoulders told Twilight exactly what was going on.

The pony she was worried about the most sat strangely quiet in her seat. Twilight had thought that Pinkie Pie would have brought the entire thing to new levels by laughing or even worse joining in. Yet the pink earth pony merely looked confused at the events around her.

“Boy, I hope one of these ponies won’t be a literal party poo…”

Pinkie’s quietly outspoken thoughts on the matter were abruptly cut off by Twilight by shoving a napkin into the pink pony’s mouth with her magic. Twilight glanced over to Celestia hoping she hadn’t heard what had been said.

___________________________________________________________________

Princess Celestia was still motionless in her seat. She was having a flashback.

A few hundred years ago there had been a miscommunication between the pegasi and earthponies. It had led to a draught in parts of the country, which in turn had damaged the crops. For an entire winter all the ponies in Canterlot had left to eat were beans.

It had been during that time that open flames had been outlawed in enclosed spaces after a series of unfortunate events. It had also been the time that Canterlot had been called the Windy City, something that Celestia had not found too amusing. She had painstakingly and carefully removed any mention of that name in the history books.

She mentally shrugged away the memories and turned her attention back to the present. Now well aware of what was going on she was thankful that the lighting in the room was supplied by magically charged crystals hanging high above them and not by candles.

Using her magic she reached under her golden cushion and removed the device that had brought on those old memories. She held the whoopee cushion in front of her in a soft magical glow. Patiently she waited as the impromptu unorthodox concert died down. Once she was sure the ponies in attendance had seen what had caused the stir she cast another spell. With a poof of magical energies the cushion vanished. A second surge of magic casually opened a few windows.

“Shall we begin with our main course for tonight?” she calmly asked.

____________________________________________________________________

In the hallway beyond the dining room a sight could be seen that was most surprising.

Princess Luna was sprawled out on her back clutching her belly with her front hooves. Her wings were spread across the floor to her sides. Her howling laughter had died down somewhat, but a few tears still leaked from her eyes. The soundproofing spell had done its job well and nopony had heard her mirth.

Three fillies had not shared her enjoyment. They had watched the events unfold with horror. Scootaloo had chuckled a bit, but it had been more of a panicked reaction. Applebloom had just watched in silence as Twilight’s head whipped around and was seemingly becoming more agitated. Even now her ears were twitching sporadically.

Worse off was Sweetie Belle. The little unicorn was on the verge of tears herself, but rather ones of fright than joy. She nudged the Princess of the Night with her forelegs.

“Please! You have to do something!” she pleaded with the Princess who was still recovering from her laughter. “I don’t want to be banished to the Everfree Forest!”

Princess Luna slowly regained her awareness of her surroundings. Two small hooves continuously poking at her sides helped somewhat. She lifted herself up from the floor and wiped away some of the tears on her face. Well aware now of the little white unicorns pleading she smiled at the fillies.

“Calm down, little one. You have nothing to fear, nopony knows who put that device under Celestia’s cushion.” Luna grinned and chuckled once more at the memory. Sweetie Belle wasn’t convinced and still seemed to be on the verge of tears. “Breathe deeply and relax.”

Sweetie Belle did as she was instructed and very slowly began to calm down.

“Now then, shall we join my sister and your friends for dinner?”

Sweetie Belle feverishly shook her head. “We can’t go in there! They will find out!”

“They will not. Do not fret young ones, if they should find out I shall be there beside you.” The knowledge that at least one of the Princesses would be one their side calmed them down some more.

Luna waited until they were ready to go inside. Once they nodded to signal that they were ready to go inside, Luna cancelled her soundproofing spell and opened the doors wide.

“Greetings esteemed guests. I trust your evening has been one worth remembering?” Luna said loudly to draw everyponies attention to her as she walked through the open doors.

“Princess Luna, how nice of you to join us.” Princess Celestia greeted her younger sister as she came closer. The guests bowed respectfully in their seats as Luna carefully took her seat opposite her older sister.

The crusaders had entered just after the Princess and had used her loud entrance to quickly sneak to the empty chairs reserved for them. They sat down without saying much and tried to pretend that they knew nothing of what had just happened.

Waiters soon appeared from the other doors and took the orders of the guests. It did not take long for the food to arrive, no more thoughts were spared as to what had happened before. Ponies began quietly talking about politics, food, weather and other typical topics that were reserved for these events.

All had seemingly forgotten save for three fillies and a purple unicorn.

__________________________________________________________________

Twilight’s thoughts were consumed with why somepony would have pranked Celestia and especially who would have done it. Her initial first thought had been Discord, but she remembered that Celestia had said she would know if he had been here.

Her other two suspects were currently occupied with their meals. Pinkie Pie was talking to Twilight’s parents while happily munching on her salad. Rainbow Dash was talking to Scootaloo about the Wonderbolts once again. Both of them were notorious pranksters in Ponyville, but Twilight knew that even they had their limits. Celestia was most certainly one of those limits.

Perhaps it had been some kind of strange attempt at political assassination?

Twilight dismissed the thought as farfetched. Inwardly she was fuming that somepony had the audacity to do something like that to her beloved mentor. She would investigate more once dinner was over, it was too bad that Celestia had destroyed the cushion, perhaps she could have found some clue as to who had been the culprit.

Twilight took a bite from her eggplant casserole and watched her friends. Then she noticed something strange. The absence of three voices she normally would always hear laughing during parties where they were invited to.

She looked over to the crusaders who were strangely quiet.

Scootaloo was chomping away at her meal with typical pegasus fueled hunger and listening to Rainbow Dash’s explanation of a triple looping corkscrew dive. Applebloom was eating her meal more slowly and watched Spike explain the finer nuances of Donut Joe’s donuts.

Then Twilight looked over to Sweetie Belle who had left her meal largely untouched. Very briefly their eyes met. Quickly the little unicorn looked away nervously, even ducking slightly away. Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the filly. Her eye twitched as she watched as bead of sweat make its way down from Sweetie Belle’s forehead.

She knows something!

Twilight was speechless for the moment. She began grinding her teeth at the implications that Sweetie Belle’s reaction told her. A slight tap of a hoof on her shoulder interrupted her trail of thought. She snapped her head around in surprise and saw that Cadence was looking at her from behind Shining Armor’s back.

“Twilight? Are you ok?” she asked with concern.

“Yes, fine. Just peachy!” Twilight said unconvincingly.

“You seem a little stressed out. Don’t forget the breathing exercises I thought you.” Cadence watched as Twilight began to do said exercises almost immediately. She was indeed feeling a little stressed at the moment. Deeply breathing in through her nose she raised a foreleg to her chest. While breathing back out through her mouth she stretched the foreleg out in front of her. She repeated the exercise four more times before she was calmer than before.

She would have to have a serious talk with those three fillies. For their sake she would wait for it after dinner.

__________________________________________________________________

Twilight wasn’t the only one thinking about who had set up the prank. While Princess Luna gave a brief report over the uneventful activities on Equestria’s borders, Princess Celestia watched her guests carefully.

Much to Luna’s worry her sister kept looking back to the crusaders, with maybe a bit too much interest. Luna decided to intervene and take away Celestia’s interest in the fillies. She gave her report on the weather.

“There have been minor weather patterns that may cause some problems in the future.” Luna reported as took a sip of her drink. Celestia focused her attention back to her younger sister. Problems were something that needed to be addressed before any personal affairs.

“What kind of problems?” she asked.

“Flat turbulence.” Luna carefully watched Celestia’s face.

“Flat turbulence….”

“At least I believe that is the correct term. I may be mistaken however.” Luna took a bite from her salad while Celestia simply stared at her.

“And what is that supposed to be?” she asked carefully.

“Oh you know. Wind rushing through the lower area causing quite a stir in the process.” Luna waited for any kind of reaction, but her sister kept a straight face. “Sometimes they create these miniature tornados.”

“Dust devils.” Celestia added dryly without blinking.

“Yes, indeed. Sometimes they can wander into crops and destroy them in the process. To my knowledge they have been coming dangerously close to destroying crops of beans, cabbages and onions and such. I know how much you love them. Would be a shame if something were to happen to them.”

Celestia carefully levitated a glass to her lips and took a long sip of the drink inside.

“Yes it would. Do you have any thoughts on how to deal with the problem?”

“I believe you are familiar with the concept of breaking wind.” Luna asked innocently while a pony within earshot suddenly began choking on his meal. “You build up obstacles along…”

“Yes, I am aware of how wind breakers work. You should bring up your concerns with the weather factory in Cloudsdale.” Celestia put her glass back down. A lesser aware pony would have never seen how her eyes narrowed by a fraction of a hair. Luna nodded in agreement, well aware that she was approaching thin ice.

“Tell me Luna, how was your evening up there on the observation tower? Not upset that you wouldn’t attend the festivities in the garden I hope?” Celestia put on a sorrowful expression, one that didn’t fool Luna one bit.

“Oh no. I had time to contemplate things from the past.” Luna replied and smiled.

“From the past you say? Anything in particular?”

“Just remembering the times in our old castle deep within the Everfree. Do you remember that we sometimes used to play music in the afternoons?”

Celestia’s smiled a genuine smile this time. She did indeed remember those times. Sadly she had given up playing music after she had been forced to banish her sister.

“Do you plan on playing your harp once more?” Celestia asked and nibbled on a leaf of lettuce.

“I was actually thinking of maybe taking up a different instrument this time. Maybe a wind instrument.” Luna mused and saw Celestia’s eyes narrow a tiny bit more. “I know you have some experience with those.”

“I used to play the flute.” Celestia finally replied after a few seconds of silence. “One of my favorite pieces was written specifically for that instrument.”

“Oh? Pray tell which one was it?” Luna asked with a smile.

“Journey to the Moon I believe it was called. I haven’t heard that in quite a long time come to think of it.”

“Mmh, I do think I know that song.” Luna replied. Her smile didn’t falter, but she was well aware that the ice she was standing on had become very very thin. She decided to not provoke her sister any further. Her goal of diverting her attention away from the fillies had worked and she concentrated on finishing her meal.

_________________________________________________________________

A while later dinner was over. The guests flocked back into the garden for some light desserts and more mingling. Luna had retreated back up to her post on Canterlot’s tower after saying goodbye to the invited guests.

Twilight had missed her chance at cornering the crusaders. Once Luna had left, they told their sister that they were getting tired and had excused themselves. The lavender unicorn would have to confront them in their room, which was good as it kept any unwanted attention away. Now all she had to do was round up their guardians and tell them about her suspicions.

She found Applejack and Rainbow Dash near a buffet table serving ice cream. Applejack was moaning about the applesauce on her vanilla ice cream would have been better had they been apples from Sweet Apple Acres. Rainbow Dash didn’t really care too much about that and had just finished off her second banana split.

“Girls, I need to talk to you!” Twilight said as she stood beside them.

“Uhh, are ya ok sugarcube?” Applejack asked with concern. It was apparent that Twilight was not having the best of times. Her mane was slightly in disarray and her nervous flicking of the ears didn’t help much to assuage her friends concern.

“It’s urgent!” Twilight stated with a hiss, causing the other two mares to flinch back a bit. “Meet me in my room. I have to find Rarity.”

They watched her walk away further into the garden. Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged a glance and merely shrugged. Whatever was on Twilight’s mind they would find out in her room, so they made their way there.

A few minutes later Twilight arrived with Rarity in tow at her room. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had been patiently waiting in front of her door. Twilight quickly ushered them inside and closed the door after they were all inside.

“What is this about Twilight? You didn’t say anything to me when you dragged me away from my chat with Fleur.” Rarity moaned and faced the other unicorn. Twilight took a deep breath before answering.

“I think the crusaders had something to do with the things that have happened this evening.”

The accusation surprised the friends and they exchanged nervous glances with each other.

“How’d ya get that idea?” Applejack finally asked.

“They know something! They were acting too quiet during dinner!”

“They were tired, darling. You can’t blame them for tiring themselves out and then not being fully attentive during dinner.” Rarity raised an eyebrow in concern as Twilight’s eye twitched.

“No, no. They weren’t tired, they were feeling guilty! Come to think of it, perhaps they orchestrated the entire thing!” Twilight began pacing back and forth in front of the assembled ponies.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Rainbow Dash held up a hoof to stop Twilight from saying any more wild accusations. “You are telling me that those three managed to prank an entire garden party and slip a whoopee….”

“Yes!” Twilight cut her off. “They did…..THAT as well. That’s an attack on royalty! That’s treason!”

“Oh come now. I cannot believe my dear sweet little sister would do something of that magnitude. Aren’t you maybe just looking for a convenient scapegoat?” Rarity would not leave her sister undefended, even if the accusations came from one of her best friends.

“NO! We can prove it! We go in their room right now and ask them! I know a spell that could help.” Twilight was clearly getting too involved into her idea. Applejack stepped forward to stop her from pacing about.

“Whoa there. We ain’t gonna put any spells on three fillies! Now Ah want ya to do them exercises that Cadence taught ya! We ain’t goin’ nowhere until ya have calmed down a bit.” Applejack’s tone of voice left no room for debate. Twilight gave her an angry look, but complied and began her breathing techniques.

Five minutes later she was beginning to get a cramp in her foreleg, but had somewhat calmed down.

“Ok then. Now we all go over to the fillies room an’ ask if they do know somethin’ about this mess. But ya have ta promise me, Twi, that if they did do somethin’ that we’ll handle it.” Applejack would not let Twilight handle any kind of punishing measures to the fillies. She knew that her friend could easily get carried away, especially when Princess Celestia was involved.

“Fine.” Twilight merely stated and left the room with her friends in tow.

Once they arrived at the door to the room the crusaders were staying in, she knocked three times. Without waiting for an answer she went inside.

Chapter 6

Scootaloo was lying on her belly on the carpet in their room.

Its fluffiness did not bring her any real comfort as she watched Sweetie Belle pace about with worry. Applebloom merely sat on the bed also watching their friend. All three had taken off their dresses and were back to their usual appearances.

“What do we do? I don’t want to go into the Everfree forever. I want to stay in Ponyville with my family. I don’t even have my cutie mark yet.” Sweetie Belle was rambling to herself, taking gulping breaths of air between sentences.

“That won’t happen. Remember that Luna said she would be on our side if anypony found out what we did. She won’t let us be banished to anywhere.” Scootaloo mumbled up from the carpet. “Besides, nopony knows that we did it.”

“Twilight might know.” Sweetie Belle stopped her pacing and sat down in front of the prone pegasus. “Did you see the way she kept looking at me during dinner?”

“I kinda missed that, sorry.” Scootaloo had been too busy eating and listening to Rainbow Dash’s awesome explanation of various aerial stunts that the Wonderbolts performed.

“She knows it was me that put that whoopee cushion on Celestia’s seat.” Sweetie Belle was slightly shaking. “She will send me away.”

Her voice cracked on the last word and tears began to well up in her bright green eyes. Scootaloo sat up and put a hoof on her friends shoulder.

“As long as nopony tells her it was you, she will never find out.”

“Are ya sayin’ we should lie if she asks?” Applebloom had been silent since their return to the room, too wrapped up in her own thoughts on the evening. “Ah can’t lie to Twilight. She’s one of mah sister’s best friends, that’s like lying to mah sister herself.”

“Well….if somepony asks us we say we all did it.” Scootaloo said and stuck a hoof out and looked at her friends in turn. “If, then we get banished together.”

Sweetie Belle smiled at the Pegasus and lifted her own hoof to lay on Scootaloo’s. “Together.”

Applebloom sat on the bed and did not move for the longest moment. She watched her two friends on the floor looking up to her, waiting for her to join in. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow questioningly, as the earthpony sat motionless. Finally Applebloom hopped down from the bed and put her hoof on her friend’s hooves. “Together.”

The fillies jumped back in shock as three knocks pounded on the door. Before any of them could say something, Twilight Sparkle barged inside with Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash following her.

Nopony spoke as Twilight stood before the cutie mark crusaders, giving each one a long and angry glare. Her voice was frosty when she finally spoke.

“You girls wouldn’t happen to know anything about the strange occurrences this evening, would you?”

A few seconds passed in silence. Twilight kept shifting her look from one crusader to the next, while their guardians stood by watching carefully. Finally the fillies nodded.

“We did it.” Scootaloo spoke for them quietly.

“I KNEW IT!” Twilight’s sudden outburst made them flinch back with ears folded down.

“Ah don’t believe it.” Applejack’s jaw fell open.

“Sweeite Belle! How could you?” With a hoof pressed against her chest, Rarity took a step backwards in shock.

“You have got to be kidding me….” Rainbow Dash had merely mumbled her response to the unexpected revelation. She facehoofed and momentarily obscured her face from the other ponies.

“You girls are in so much trouble now. I will make sure that….” Twilight’s rant was cut short before it had even properly begun.

“Eh eh eh! We had an agreement, Twi!” Applejack moved between Twilight and the fillies. “Leave this to us.”

For a moment Applejack thought that Twilight would go back on the agreement and start chastising them again. The farmpony wanted to avoid her friend from punishing her sister and friends, partly because it was her own duty as the older sibling and in part for her fear that Twilight might overdo it and scar them for life with irrational fears of lectures, essays or studying.

“Fine.” Twilight grumbled, but kept giving the fillies a very angry look.

“Applebloom, go into mah room. Sweetie Belle, yer goin’ into yer sister’s room and Scootaloo into Rainbow’s. Ya’ll wait fer us there.” Applejack motioned the fillies to get a move on with a shooing motion of her hoof.

“How did you do those things during the party?” Twilight asked as the three moved past her, heads bowed low.

“Poison Joke.” Scootaloo simply answered and continued out of the room. Sweetie Belle began whimpering halfway through the door, while Applebloom glanced nervously back at her sister.

Once they had left the room Twilight turned to Applejack. The twitch in the unicorns eyes and ears was still present.

“You really should let me teach them what was wrong about the things they did here tonight.”

“No Twilight. It’s our responsibility seein’ as we’re the ones that brought ‘em along in the first place.” Applejack put a hoof down to make a point. Its effect was lost however as she was standing on the thick plush carpet that muffled any sound made. It really was a very nice fluffy carpet.

“Applejack is right. As her sister I shall make sure she sees the error of her ways.” Rarity brushed a few imaginary specks of dust from her gown, mentally planning out how to talk to Sweetie Belle.

Applejack turned her attention to Rainbow Dash, who had been rather quiet thus far.

“Ya think ya can handle talkin’ ta Scootaloo? If ya want Ah can…” Applejack began.

“Nah. I can handle a little filly.” Rainbow Dash stated flatly.

“Ok then.” Applejack ushered her friends out of the room. Once outside she turned to Twilight. “Relax Twi, we’ll take care of everythin’. Ya can go back the party. There won’t be any unexpected things happenin’ no more.”

Twilight merely nodded and trotted away. The country mare sighed at her friends retreating form, hoping that she would calm down. An agitated Twilight was not something easily dealt with. Rainbow Dash had already left towards her room, while Applejack and Rarity shared an affirmative nod. The next few minutes would most likely not be very pleasant.

________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash took the opportunity, on route to her room, to take off her dress. The party was pretty much over anyway, for her at least. Had the Wonderbolts been there she would have rejoined later, seeing that that wasn’t the case she might as well have an early night’s sleep, after she had dealt with Scootaloo.

As she entered her room she spotted the little pegasus immediately. Scootaloo stood in the middle of the room, her head held high, little wings outstretched on her back and seemingly prepared to receive whatever punishment would be coming to her. Rainbow Dash admired the little one’s attitude, it reminded her a lot of her younger years.

The cyan pegasus’ dress was unceremoniously flung over the closest chair, her shoes, headdress and necklace soon followed. She tapped the clasp in her hair three times with a hoof and felt her hair extensions coming loose instantly. It had been a gift from Rarity, who during Gala preparations had been driven to the brink of madness while trying to tame Rainbow Dash’s trademark multicolored mane. The little clasp magically wove in the extensions and placed a very fine invisible hairnet over the rest of her mane. That’s how Rarity had described it to her at least and was able to form it into something more elegant.

Rainbow Dash ran a hoof through her mane and it was back to its usual wild spiky form. She trotted over to where Scootaloo stood, who had silently watched her all this time.

“Ok Scoot, let’s get this over with. Turn around and present flank.”

Scootaloo blinked as her jaw slightly dropped. She had reckoned with being told off, but the thought of other means of punishment had not occurred to her. She knew that some foals were spanked when misbehaving, something she had not experienced thus far. Her caretaker in the orphanage had sent Scootaloo once or twice to bed without supper or had doubled her chores for a week, but never would have raised a hoof to one of her orphans.

Scootaloo swallowed a lump in her throat as Rainbow Dash came closer. Perhaps she deserved it, after all they had more or less sabotaged the party and pulled a prank on the ruler of all of Equestria. Still it pained her that it would have to be Rainbow Dash of all ponies that would punish her.

“Come on, come on. I don’t have all day.” Rainbow Dash said impatiently as she stood in front of Scootaloo.

With minor hesitation the filly turned around, hung her head low and closed her eyes, bracing herself for what would some next. She felt Rainbow Dash move closer.

“Awww, ponyfeathers. I really hoped you’d have gotten your cutie mark in pranking this evening.”

Scootaloo opened her eyes and whipped her head around to look at the grinning pegasus behind her.

“You…you’re not mad at me?” she asked and turned around.

“Mad at you? Are you kidding? I haven’t laughed this much since the time Pinkie sat on an anthill.” Rainbow Dash chuckled at the memory. “Pranking the entire party and even pranking Celestia? That takes guts, Squirt.”

Scootaloo giggled as her mane was ruffled by the larger pegasus. She felt her anxiety fade away and her body relax as it was clear that Rainbow Dash would not be punishing her in the way she had feared.

“For a moment I thought you would give me a spanking for what we did this evening.”

Rainbow Dash’s smile faltered a bit. “I’d never do that, Scoot.”

Rainbow Dash had some experience in that form of punishment. She sure enough had received it plenty of times during her childhood and knew that it hadn’t stopped her misbehaving, if anything her rebellious nature had been fueled by it instead. Perhaps it worked for some ponies, but she was against it.

“Though I am kinda disappointed that you didn’t let me in on the plan. I bet I would have had a few good ideas myself.” Her grin came back as she moved beside the filly, draping a wing over her.

“Still, while I may be cool with it all, some ponies aren’t too happy right now.” she continued.

“Like Twilight.” Scootaloo stated the obvious.

“Yeah, like Twilight. She isn’t too happy that you pranked Celestia. I get where she’s coming from, I wouldn’t like something like that happen to somepony that I looked up to very much either. Would you?”

Scootaloo could indeed see what Rainbow Dash was saying. She would have also been less than thrilled if somepony had pulled a prank like that on Rainbow Dash or one of her friends.

“Sorry.” She apologized. Rainbow Dash squeezed the filly with her wing.

“Best not to go around pranking Princesses anymore, Squirt.”

“I won’t.” Scootaloo said and nuzzled against her surrogate sisters side. “Thanks Rainbow Dash.”

“Don’t mention it, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash briefly nuzzled the filly’s mane. “Now go back and get some sleep. We gotta get up early tomorrow morning.”

Rainbow Dash released the filly from her embrace and ruffled her mane once more for good measure.

“Oh and if Twilight should ask about your punishment…..let’s just tell her that I gave you something horrible to do, ok?”

“Like cleaning the orphanage for two weeks?” Scootaloo suggested.

“Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. Let’s just say I made you do that.” Rainbow Dash watched the giggling filly trot out of her room. Once the door closed she jumped into bed and kept replaying some of the events from this evening in her mind. She would keep laughing for quite some time.

_____________________________________________________________________

Sweetie Belle sat on Rarity’s bed, a pillow clutched to her chest in hopes it would absorb some of her nervous shaking. Her eyes were on the verge of shedding tears, already a sniffle or two could be heard.

Rarity stormed into the room, seemingly appalled that her younger sister would be involved in all that mess. A quick burst of magic closed the door behind her as she walked up to the bed.

“What were you thinking, Sweetie Belle? Of all the things you have done in the past, this time you went too far!” The angry tone of Rarity’s voice worked like a whip, every other word made the filly flinch back.

One look into the older unicorns face and seeing the anger and disappointment in her eyes was enough to break the dam holding back her tears. With a loud wail Sweetie Belle let them fall into the pillow she was holding.

“I’m…..s-so sorryyyyy.” She stammered between loud sobs. Rarity winced at the sounds and sight of the little unicorn. She hated seeing her sister like this, regardless of what she may have done. After a long sigh she climbed on the bed herself and sat beside her little sister. She only briefly touched her when immediately Sweetie Belle let go of her pillow and latched on to her sister with a shaky hug. Rarity’s face scrunched up briefly knowing that her dress was being soaked by tears. She shook her head to dislodge that thought, it was her sister crying after all.

“Do you mind telling me why you did that this evening?” she asked calmly.

It took a few minutes before Sweetie Belle was able to answer her. Of all the crusaders young Sweetie Belle was certainly the most emotional and also vulnerable to harsh criticisms. She reminded her of Rarity when she was younger.

“I never planned to put that whoopee cushion there.” She finally squeaked out.

“You? You put that there? What in Equestria had possessed you to do such a thing?” Rarity was shocked to learn that it had been Sweetie Belle of all ponies that had put that device into place.

“I…I just wanted him to sit on it.”

“Him? Who is him?”

“That Prince.”

“Blueblood? Why did you want him to sit there?”

“Because he never fell for any of the other things we had set up. I just wanted to get him.” Sweetie Belle said with her head still buried in Rarity’s chest and the occasional sob causing her little shoulders to shudder.

“Why would you want to prank him, if I may ask?” Rarity’s outrage had very much been replaced by confusion at this point.

“Because he was mean to us. He was mean to you. You kept saying how he had ruined your first Gala and everytime somepony would mention him you would become angry or sad. I just wanted to get him for doing that to you.” Sweetie explained quietly. “I never wanted the Princess to get it instead. And now she is going to banish meeeeheheeee.”

Fresh tears were shed and the little unicorn buried her head further into Rariy’s dress. The larger white unicorn sat motionless for a moment, too startled by Sweetie Belle’s motivations. Then she wrapped her forelegs around the quivering little unicorn and soothingly ran a hoof through her two-toned curly mane.

“Nopony is banshing you anywhere.” She said and waited for the words to sink in. “I see now why you did it. I guess I did play a part in this entire fiasco.”

Rarity waited until her sister had calmed down. She released her from her embrace and positioned herself to be able to look at her face. The tears had left streaks on the filly’s cheeks and her eyes were red from all the crying. Rarity avoided looking down at her dress, well aware that most of the tears would have ended up there. For the moment that wasn’t important.

“It was unladylike for me to harbor any animosity towards that oaf. Holding on to something like that isn’t worth the energy and I have as much fault as you do in the proceedings this evening.” Rarity smiled down at her sister.

“Y…you are not angry?” she hesitated to ask.

“No, I am not. You know that what you did was wrong, but you also admitted that you never wanted to do that to the Princess.”

“So I am not getting punished?” Sweetie Belle cast a hopeful look up to her sister.

Rarity was in a bit of a tough position. While true that Sweetie Belle’s motivation was a result of her own faults at not being able to let go of something in the past, she had also caused havoc amongst a lot of ponies during the party outside in the garden. The pranks having affected ponies that had nothing to do with the animosity towards Prince Blueblood were worthy of punishment.

Then again Rarity had shamelessly exploited the effects herself in form of Fleur’s inability to lie. She had learned about Hoity Toity lying to her and trying to cheat her out of money. As a bonus she had also learned some really juicy gossip about other high class ponies. All in all the events had proven very favorable to the fashionista.

She carefully wiped away some of the tears from the little filly's face on the bed and gave her an encouraging smile.

“I do believe you have been punishing yourself enough.” She put a hoof under Sweetie Belle’s chin and raised her head a little. “I know that you had good intentions, but you also know that what you did wasn’t the best course of action.”

“I know.” Sweetie Belle confirmed and gave a hopeful smile.

“Don’t worry about it any longer, my dear. One day we’ll look back on this evening and laugh about it. No more tears, okay?”

“Okay.” Sweetie Belle gave her big sister a smile, the first in a long time this evening. “I am sorry about your dress.”

Rarity purposefully avoided looking down to her dress where no doubt her sister’s crying had left an unseemly stain. It could be fixed easily at a later time.

“Don’t worry about that either. Just promise me you won’t be doing something like this again.”

“I promise.” Sweetie Belle wrapped her little forelegs around her sister’s neck and hugged her. Rarity returned the hug immediately and they remained like that for a few moments.

“Time to go back to your friends, Sweetie Belle. We have to get up early and we all could use a good night’s sleep after tonight.” They finally broke the hug and Sweetie Belle yawned a little, confirming that everything thus far had indeed been taxing for the little unicorn.

Rarity watched her leave the room with a quick good night wish. Once she had left, Rarity glanced down to her dress and let out a small groan.

__________________________________________________________________

Applejack entered her room with hesitation. She never liked having to punish her little sister for the trouble she sometimes caused.

She was way more lenient with Applebloom than some parents were with their own children. It was largely due to the fact that Applejack herself had a rather stressful upbringing, void of a lot of fun. Since her parents had passed away when she was young she was forced to do her part on the farm to keep it afloat.

Granny Smith had then already been unable to help with any of the harder work on the farm, so she and her brother had taken over that part. She had been robbed of many things in her childhood and had silently vowed not to rob her little sister of any of those things.

Applejack encouraged her to have fun and to do well in school to maybe one day go to university. She made sure she was healthy and could have her free time with her friends. All things she had to give up for the sake of keeping the farm. So it was with a heavy heart that she would now have to punish her sister for the chaos she had stirred.

The orange farmpony trotted up to her little sister, who was sitting close to the door. She had her head bowed low and carefully watched the older mare walk up to her.

“So…” Applejack sat down in front of her and took off her trademark hat. “Ya wanna tell me where ya got that Poison Joke from? ‘Cause if ya went to Zercora’s and took it yer gonna be in a lot more trouble.”

“No, no. Ah didn’t take it from anypony. Somepony gave it to us.” Applebloom hastily replied.

“Somepony gave it to ya? And ya just took it? What did Ah tell ya about takin’ things from ponies ya don’t know?” Applejack was worried now that some shady character had been near her sister.

“It wasn’t somepony we didn’t know.” Applebloom’s quick reply didn’t help to clarify anything, evident by Applejack’s confused look.

“Then who gave it to ya? Was it Rainbow or Pinkie? Ya better tell me the whole story.” Applejack gave her little counterpart a stern look.

“It wasn’t either of them.” With a sigh Applebloom began to explain what had happened. “We got bored and decided ta explore the castle. After a while we found the kitchen where all them small snack were jus’ waitin’ ta be tasted. After tryin’ a few we began goofin’ around and Ah may have thrown a pie into Princess Luna’s face.”

“Ya did WHAT!?” Applejack sat wide-eyed as her jaw dropped open. Applebloom was quick to continue her tale before she could say anymore.

“But she wasn’t angry or anythin’. We asked her what she was doin’ there in the kitchen, when Sweetie Belle found the Poison Joke that the Princess had been carryin’. She then asked if we would help her with somethin’ important, so we said yes. We put a drop of the stuff on them snacks like she told us to.”

Applejack simply stared at her sister. The new facts were surprising to say the least.

“And the whoopee cushion?”

“Princess Luna gave it to us as well.” Applebloom gave a small smile to see if her big sister was mad or not. The farmpony just stared at the filly, momentarily trying to piece all the pieces together.

“Am I going to get punished for this?” the filly asked after a moment of silence.

Applejack sighed and donned her hat once again. Then she smiled at the little filly.

“Under normal circumstances Ah would make ya to double chores around the farm fer two weeks and there would be no more crusadin’ in that time either. However, seein’ as ya were actin’ under royal orders and such….. Ah’d say ya ain’t getting’ punished.”

Applejack briefly ruffled her sisters red mane, causing the little filly to sigh with relief.

“Ya know it ain’t right to go prankin’ on the Princess right?” she asked.

“Of course Ah do. Ah won’t be doin’ somethin’ like that again, that’s fer sure.”

“Good ta hear. Ah have ta be honest, Ah actually had a lot of fun this evenin’. Seein’ all them high class ponies behavin’ silly while tryin’ ta behave as if nothin’ was goin’ on.” Applejack laughed along with Applebloom for a few moments.

“What about Twilight? She seemed really mad at us.” Applebloom noted after the laughter had died down a bit.

“Don’t worry about Twi. If she is still mad at ya, Ah’ll have a talk with her and explain everythin’.” Applejack reassured her sister. “Why don’t ya go back to yer friends and see how they are doin’?”

Applebloom agreed to do just that and after saying good night to her big sister, she left the room. Applejack chuckled as she trotted over to her bed and began to take off her dress. It was getting late and she usually was in bed fairly early, today would be no exception.

_________________________________________________________________

High above Canterlot, Princess Luna stepped away from the telescope for a moment and smiled. She had been carefully observing the crusaders once she noticed Twilight Sparkle’s interest in them. As she feared her sister’s student had figured out that the fillies had part in this evening’s entertainment.

She had watched the confrontation in the crusader’s room and the resulting talks being held in their respective guardian’s rooms. Had any one of the fillies been unfairly punished, she would have teleported down instantly to explain everything. To her surprise none of the guardian’s had acted in any disagreeable manner. The bonds and understanding shown to her made her think back to times long past, when she had a very similar bond to Celestia. She shook her head clear from ancient memories.

There was still the matter of Twilight Sparkle. Luna carefully searched the rooms until she found the lavender unicorn pacing around in her room, a purple dragon watching her with a frown.

__________________________________________________________________

“I mean, how could they do such a thing? To the pony who holds all our fates in her hooves? It just boggles the mind how three fillies could be so….so foolish.” Twilight was ranting and pacing about in her room. Spike had been unfortunate to be on his way to his own room, when he had bumped into her. Needing somepony or in this case somedragon to vent to, Twilight had dragged him into her room.

Spike had heard it all before, in fact he had heard the same thing now for the fourth time as Twilight kept repeating herself more and more.

“Oh, would you just relax Twilight!” he moaned and rolled his eyes.

“Relax? Relax! I will not relax! Not until I am absolutely certain that those three know exactly what they did wrong!” Twilight paced back and forth, ears twitching and seemingly unable or unwilling to calm down.

“Why are you so worked up about this? They are just fillies, of course they will do some silly things every once in a while.”

“Silly things!?” Twilight stopped her pacing and just gaped at her assistant. “Embarrassing the Princess is not a silly thing!”

“She seemed cool about it. Why can’t you?” Spike asked and folded his arms in front of his chest. He knew very well that Twilight would easily go crazy over the smallest things if Celestia was somehow involved.

“Because one just doesn’t prank the Princess and get away with it!”

“You did.” Spike countered with a smirk.

“I…I what? I never did anything of the kind!” Twilight protested with outrage.

“Oh, come on! You pulled the exact same prank on her when you were younger!” He pointed a claw accusingly at the unicorn. “I may have been small, but being a dragon helps to remember those things.”

Dragons matured in their own way. Their brains would develop faster than their bodies would and as such had excellent memory from a very early age on. Something that came in handy when one was an assistant to a unicorn who regularly forgot where she had placed her books.

“I did not do that in front of a full dinner table!” Twilight tried to justify her actions as a young student. “I did that within the confines of a private reading room.”

“Psh, so it was on a smaller scale. But you did all kinds of things to the Princess and she never was angry about it! She even laughed.”

“That was all for scientific research purposes!” Twilight’s anger subsided slowly.

“Preparing a bucket full of water above the door, waiting for the Princess to walk through only to have it drop on her head was for scientific research?” Spike raised an eyebrow.

“Yeeees.” Twilight struggled to remember what she had been trying to research. “I believe I wanted to see how long it took her to evaporate the water out of her mane.”

“Really? And how long did that take?”

“Two point four five seconds I think. I would have to check my old research papers.” Twilight made a mental note to do just that things once they were back in Ponyville.

“Don’t you think you should cut them a little slack? Perhaps they were trying to get their cutie marks in scientific research themselves.” It was a farfetched idea and both of them knew it, but Twilight did chuckle at the thought. She sighed and sat down on her haunches.

“I guess you’re right. Perhaps I did work myself up over it all.”

“You think?” Spike’s reply was dripping with sarcasm.

“If Princess Celestia is ok with it, I guess I should be too. Thanks Spike, for making me see that.” Twilight trotted over to the dragon and gave him a hug. She was grateful that her assistant was sometimes more levelheaded than she was.

“Glad you came to your senses. Now if you will excuse me, I have a sapphire and ruby donut waiting for me in my room.”

__________________________________________________________________

Princess Luna smirked at the exchange she had just witnessed. It was very interesting to know that Celestia’s prized student had tried pranking her mentor. That was something Luna would have to investigate a bit further at another time. For now she turned her attention back to the borders of Equestria and resumed her nightly duties.

A while later a surge of magical energies inside the castle took her attention.

Chapter 7

Princess Luna quickly checked the castle below using the telescope.

The burst of magical energy had been large and quick. A sign of either a powerful or very complex spell. It had been too quick for her to know exactly where its origins were.

A quick scan revealed that none of the magical enchantments around vital parts of the castle had been disturbed. Neither the libraries, armory or vault were compromised. She observed the guards standing at attention around those locations, none of which seemed to have noticed anything out of the ordinary.

She carefully checked any hidden corners and rooms near the vital parts of the castle. The look through the telescope would enable her to see anything strange. Changelings were still a problem that had not yet been resolved. For now it seemed that particular threat was not an immediate issue.

Luna decided to check up on the ponies below. A look into one of the kitchens showed her that the staff was still busy clearing away the remnants of the party. It also showed that not all appetizers laced with poison joke had been consumed by the guests, evident by an involuntary tap dance currently being performed by a rather surprised mare in the kitchen. Other ponies simply gawked at her performance.

She moved her attention away from the staff and guards and decided to check on the current guests.

Out of worry she first looked into the room of the cutie mark crusaders. The three fillies were happily sleeping in the huge bed, much to the Princess’ relief. Nothing out of the ordinary could be seen as Luna carefully scanned the room. She moved her vision to another room.

Applejack was also already fast asleep. The orange mare seemed to be snoring loudly, luckily the rooms were somewhat soundproof. Luna doubted very much that the earthpony would have anything to do with the burst of magic so she looked into the next room.

Unlike the previous pony, this one was still awake. Rarity sat in front of the room’s vanity unit and carefully used her magic to cover her face with some kind of greenish substance. Luna had seen plenty of ponies do that before going to bed. She had never understood why they did that and would one day have to research the purpose behind that strange ritual. Despite the white unicorn using magic, Luna checked the next room. The energy involved in applying that stuff was too little to have been noticed by her earlier.

The next guest was half awake. Luna observed Rainbow Dash beating her pillow into shape. Obviously the pegasus seemed not too thrilled with her bed and most likely would have preferred clouds to sleep on. A few punches later she rested her head on the now misshapen pillow and slowly began drifting back to sleep. There was no magic to be seen.

A quick look into Fluttershy’s room merely revealed the mare lying in her bed sleeping. Even that seemed somehow to be graceful. Luna peered into the room next to Fluttershy’s. Its occupant was sitting in bed.

Pinkie adjusted the nightcap on top of her head, a white and green soft woolen cap that barely managed to contain the pony’s poofy pink mane. Pinkie suddenly turned her head and briefly locked eyes with Luna. The Princess knew she couldn’t possibly know that she was being observed, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that Pinkie Pie was looking at her. Pinkie smiled and then turned away to slide under the covers. Once in place she again seemed to look at the Princess and waved, before closing her eyes and drifting to sleep.

Luna observed the pink earthpony for a moment. Entirely unsure what to think of what she had just seen. She would one day have to investigate further and see if it had just been a coincidence or if Pinkie really knew that she had been watched.

The next pony Luna viewed by means of telescope was the most likely candidate for performing a spell. Twilight Sparkle was lying in bed reading a book she had brought along. She was indeed using her magic to keep it floating in front of her eyes and turning the pages, but that wasn’t anywhere near the magnitude of what she had felt previously.

Luna checked on Spike, only to see him sleeping soundly in his bed, a half-eaten donut lying beside him. A quick look to the other guests showed her nothing out of the ordinary either. That left one pony to check on.

Princess Luna snorted with amusement as she observed her older sister. Celestia was still awake for the moment and preparing for her night’s sleep. That meant she was stuffing her ever flowing mane into a special hairnet. The sight was most unflattering and had almost never been observed by regular ponies. Luna watched as the ruler of all of Equestria conjured another hairnet for a tail.

Princess Luna noted that the conjuring felt very similar to the burst of energy from before. Had than been it? Just Celestia’s hairnet? Shrugging Luna turned her attention away from the castle and observed the borders of Equestria once again.

She still had her doubts and remained on high alert for the rest of the night, just in case there was something going on inside the castle. The night would remain quiet.

______________________________________________________________________

Three fillies groaned in unison as rays of light hit them suddenly.

“Rise an’ shine!” Applejack pulled open the curtains in the room, bathing it in bright and warm sunlight.

“Applejack? How did ya get in here?” Applebloom asked and rubbed her eyes with a hoof. Sweetie Belle let out a little yawn, while Scootaloo seemed intent of getting a few more moments of sleep by burrowing herself further under the cover.

“Ya left yer door open.” Applejack explained and whipped off the cover from the three fillies. Scootaloo wasn’t too thrilled.

“Just a few more minutes.” She moaned.

“Can’t do that, Scootaloo. Ya got half an hour to get ready and meet us outside. Breakfast will kindly be supplied by Spike and eaten on the train. Dooonuuuuts.” Applejack teased the fillies with the last word in a sing-song voice.

Sure enough the prospect of sugary delights made the fillies slowly clamber out of bed. Applejack left the room and left them to get ready.

Silently they trudged into the adjoined bathroom and began brushing their teeth, still somewhat half asleep. Sweetie Belle glanced over to the large bathtub and noticed that it was full of water.

“Who filled up the bathtub?” she asked with a mouthful of foam.

“Maybe mah sister filled it up?” Applebloom carefully put the tip of her hoof into the liquid. “It’s hot.”

“So who gets the first turn?” Sweetie Belle asked and spat out the foam from her mouth.

“It’sh big enough for all of ush. Let’sh shusht go in togesher.” Scootaloo still had the toothbrush in her mouth.

Seeing as the bathtub was made for alicorn proportions, three fillies had plenty of space inside. After finishing up with their dental hygiene, they hopped into the hot water. It wasn’t too hot and soon they were in the middle of an impromptu battle, splashing each other with the water.

Since time was a factor, they stopped their little fight and quickly cleaned up. One by one they left the water and used the towels nearby to dry themselves off. Once they returned to their room they felt a strange tickling sensation as soon as they had passed through the door.

“Ya feel that too?” Applebloom asked and looked to her friends.

“Yeah, maybe because of the towels?” Scootaloo looked over her body to see if maybe something could be identified that was tickling her.

“I…I think it’s getting worse.” Sweetie Belle remarked. As a unicorn she had a natural ability to pick up on magic whenever it happened, just like it was happening now.

*FWOMP* *FWOMP* *FWOMP*

The strange sound was soon replaced by loud shrieks as the crusaders saw the effect of a spell that had been activated.

“What’s going on?” Scootaloo saw fur, nothing but fur.

“We look ridiculous!” Applebloom moaned as she saw her friends.

“I feel so….fluffy!” Sweetie Belle just sat on her haunches, using her forelegs to brush over her coat.

The doors burst open as Rarity entered the room. She had heard the fillies shriek and had immediately come to their aid. Now she just stood there observing the strange sight before her.

Where once three normal fillies had been sitting, now three large balls of fluff could be seen. Something had caused the coats of the crusaders to grow out to ridiculous proportions, long enough to almost hide their ears completely. Strangely it had not affected their manes or tails.

Rarity took a deep breath to let out a shriek of her own as her other friends followed her into the room to see what was going on. Three sets of eyes blinked at them from amidst the long fluffy hair. The scream that Rarity had wanted to release never came, instead she started giggling at the sight.

“What the hay happened here?” Applejack asked, while Rainbow Dash broke out in laughter at the sight of the crusaders. Spike and Pinkie Pie soon joined in with the laughter. Fluttershy just looked on in surprise the same as Twilight.

“We don’t know! We jus’ had a bath and then felt somethin’ ticklin’ us.” Applebloom explained. “An’ would ya stop laughin’?”

“I don’t think I can!” Rainbow Dash slowly approached the fluffy ponies. “This is just too funny. You guys look hilarious!”

“I believe she means to say that you look adorable.” Rarity also approached the fillies.

“Adorable? What’s going on here?” Sweetie Belle looked from one adult to the next, hoping for some kind of answer.

“If we just put in a few ribbons and maybe use a curler, we could make you look just fabulous.” Rarity began using her hooves to try and flatten some of the coat of her younger sister. She loved styling ponies and this was an opportunity too good to pass up.

“Ya can’t be serious! Who did this to mah sister?” Applejack looked over to Twilight, who merely nodded and decided to investigate the fillies with a bit of magic.

“It’s the effect of a spell that much I can say for certain.” Twilight concluded after a brief scan. “You said you just had a bath and it happened?”

“Yes, would you cut that out?” Scootaloo answered Twilight and gave Rainbow Dash a less than amused stare. The cyan pegasus had been laughing all this time. With considerable effort she stopped herself.

“Sorry, but you look awesome. Scootafuzz, Sweetie Ball and Applefluff.” She gave the three a wide grin.

“Perhaps it was something in the bathtub?” Twilight mused to herself and trotted over to the door leading to the bathroom. Pinkie followed her and had somehow put on a large detective’s hat and had a bubble pipe in her mouth. If there was a mystery to be solved, Pinkie would most certainly play her part to the fullest in solving it.

Sweetie Belle groaned as Rarity began tying her long coat hairs together with ribbons.

“Ya didn’t do anythin’ silly last night?” Applejack asked and circled the crusaders.

“We jus’ went ta bed. We didn’t eat or drink anythin’ or even see anypony.” Applebloom explained and was hoping that Rarity would not try and put any ribbons on her, the one in her mane was more than enough.

Twilight carefully examined the water in the bathtub with her magical abilities.

“Strange. There is definitely a spell affecting the water, but it doesn’t seem to be complete.” She was talking to herself and ignored Pinkie Pie who carefully followed her every step. By extending her scan she noticed another trace of a spell in the doorframe. Concentrating on it she came to a conclusion.

“It seems as if the missing parts of the spell in the water are here in the doorframe. Once somepony passes through the full effect takes place. Who would do something like that?” Twilight began to very carefully prod at the spell with her magic. Sometimes it was possible to find traces unique to each unicorn woven into the magic, akin to a magical hoofprint one could say.

No matter how hard she tried, she could not find anything she was looking for in the spell. That meant it had to have been a unicorn of considerable power and knowledge. To her knowledge only a very few ponies would be capable of casting a spell without any traces.

Her trail of thought was interrupted by a splash behind her. Alarmed Twilight turned around only to see Pinkie Pie standing in the bathtub. The water was just barely not deep enough to touch her belly.

“Pinkie! What are you doing?”

Without giving her an answer the pink pony jumped out of the water and hopped into the room with the others.

*FWOMP*

If anything she had just confirmed Twilight’s theory on how the spell worked.

“Ya look ridiculous, sugarcube.” Applejack stated flatly as she stared at Pinkie Pie who now had very fuzzy legs.

“But I don’t feel ridiculous!” Pinkie hopped over to the farmpony. “See?”

As she ran her fuzzy foreleg over Applejack’s side, the orange mare burst out laughing. Fueled by her friend’s laughter Pinkie began rubbing her legs over the other mare.

“Aaaahahaha, stop it!” The others watched as Applejack was desperately trying to get away from her tickle torturer, an impossible task seeing that it was Pinkie Pie.

“It’s the water!” Twilight tuned out the laughing Applejack and explained the situation to the others. “Once it crosses the doorway the spell inside activates and causes….well that.” She pointed a hoof towards the fuzzy fillies.

“Are they gonna stay like that?” Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight in turn used her magic again to find an answer.

“It’s temporary.” She stated after a moment, much to the relief of the crusaders. “I guess it will fade away after a few hours.”

“A few hours?” Scootaloo wasn’t too happy at the prospect of staying like this for any longer than necessary.

“Wait, wait. Ya mean we have tah stay like this all the way to the train station?” Applebloom said while watching her sister still being tickled mercilessly by Pinkie Pie.

“I am afraid so. I pulled the plug in the bathtub so at least nopony else will be affected.” Twilight explained.

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up at what her friend had said. Gears feverishly turned in the cyan pegasus’ head as she thought of a way to maybe cause a bit more entertainment. This was too good to just ignore. Unnoticed by the others she snuck into the bathroom and searched for a way to keep some of the water.

Three beakers that had been used for brushing teeth earlier would have to do, she concluded after failing to see anything else to be used. Carefully she managed to fill one of them and half of the second one. The water had drained too fast for her to salvage anymore, but it was good enough for her next plan.

Carefully balancing the beakers on her back she nonchalantly reentered the room with her friends. Twilight was trying to undo the spell, with no luck so far.

Rainbow Dash set down the half full beaker on a table and casually walked up behind Rarity with the full one. She tipped some of the water out onto the unicorns back, it was only a small amount running down from Rarity’s neck, along her spine to her tail.

The unicorn jumped back in surprise and turned on the now grinning pegasus.

“What did you dooo?” she growled as she felt a tickling sensation. “Oh…..my….”

*FWOMP*

Rarity just stared at the ridge of hair along her spine. Rainbow Dash was waiting for her to shriek and flail about dramatically. To her disappointment the fashionista did no such thing.

“You know, if I would dye this the same color as my mane it might actually look rather fetching. Maybe a ribbon or two, hmmmm.” Rarity walked over to a mirror to get a better view of her new look.

Rainbow Dash frowned at the prank that had been a dud. Apart from Spike and Fluttershy none of the others had noticed yet what she was doing. That left her time to pick the next target.

Fluttershy was off-limits when it came to pranking. She knew that her timid friend would not react well to even the most harmless of pranks. A few years ago that might not have stopped her, but she had changed in the past, mostly thanks to her friends.

That left Spike. Rainbow Dash tipped a good amount over the chuckling little dragon, who ceased his mirth instantly. Rainbow watched carefully as the now wet dragon shook some of the water from his scales.

Nothing happened.

“Nice try Rainbow. Guess it only works on ponies or you know… hair?” Spike stated and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He tried to give the multicolor maned mare an angry glare, but couldn’t help smirking at the events around him.

Rainbow Dash looked around for a new target. Pinkie already had been affected by the spell, as were the fillies. Applejack was on the floor still trying in vain to escape from the fuzzy torture. That left one target left. Rainbow Dash smiled.

“Hey Twilight! Think fast!” Rainbow Dash hurled the rest of the water towards the unicorn.

Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, Twilight did indeed think fast and put up a reflection spell in reflex. The water hit the shimmering barrier and was propelled back towards Rainbow Dash. She had not reckoned with something like that and had no chance to avoid the water. With a splash it hit her right in the face, soaking her entire head.

“Oh, ponyfeathers….”

*FWOMP*

Scootaloo burst out laughing at the sight of Rainbow Dash’s fluffy head. The two other fillies joined in on the laughter as well as Spike and Pinkie who had now released Applejack from her grasp. The farmpony was lying on the floor trying to catch her breath, the sight of Rainbow Dash did not make that any easier. Even Rarity laughed at the backfired prank.

“Oh no you don't, Rainbow.” Twilight gave the pegasus a smug grin. “I am not falling for something like that. Serves you right for trying to prank me.”

Pinkie spied the other half full beaker standing on the table. It seemed unfair to her that Twilight was left out and she planned to rectify that oversight.

With one smooth movement she grabbed the beaker and emptied its contents towards Twilight with a swing of her hoof. The unicorn had moved away from her position however so Pinkies initial targeted area was spared. With a splash the water hit Twilight’s flanks instead of her back.

The unicorn jumped high into the air with surprise. It only took her a split second to realize what had just happened.

*FWOMP*

“Pinkie!” She gave the now giggling pink mare an angry stare. The laughter echoing around the room somewhat diminished her anger at her friend's actions. With a sigh she looked at her flanks. “You do know that we will have to go to the station like this, right?”

“Hehe, ain’t a problem for me, Miss Fluffy Flanks.” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and hovered over to Scootaloo. “Come on Scoots, we’ll fly there without being seen.”

A magical grasp on her tail held her in place.

“Think again.” Twilight gave her friend an evil grin. “We’re in this together and you will walk, just like the rest of us.”

“Heh, fine.” Rainbow Dash was curious as how other ponies would react to their current state. Besides, she could take a good prank and this one was really good in her book.

“Any idea who did this?” Twilight asked and missed how the three fillies looked at each other.

The fillies first thought had been that Princess Luna had a hoof in this prank. Still it was strange that she would wait until the morning and not have done this during the party or shortly thereafter.

After packing up the rest of their things the ponies and dragon prepared themselves to leave the castle. They had already said goodbye to Princess Celestia before waking the fillies, so all that was left was to get to the station, quickly.

__________________________________________________________________

Princess Luna was walking along a corridor in the second floor of the castle. Her duties had ended once her sister had raised the sun. Now she was on her way to a dining room to eat some breakfast or in her case a little snack before retiring to her room for some sleep.

As she glanced out of the windows out to the courtyard she stopped in her tracks. A strange sight could be seen down there and it took a moment before she realized who those ponies down below were.

She watched as three very furry fillies followed the adults out towards the exit. Two of them were no more than large balls of fur, the third one resembled a fuzzy hedgehog thanks to countless ribbons in her coat.

The adults fared no better, but it made Luna chuckle as she saw the large fluffy flanks of her sister’s beloved student. All of them were hurriedly trotting away, trying in vain not to draw too much attention.

Luna was at a loss for words. Then she remembered the burst of magic from last night. It wasn’t unreasonable to think that maybe somepony had decided to do a prank of their own. Luna’s eyes narrowed as she thought of the only pony in the castle capable of doing something like that. With a smirk she made her way towards her original destination.

_____________________________________________________________________

The dining room was full, as was to be expected for this time. Luna saw a few nobles from last night, amongst a few new faces that had most likely arrived only this morning. Princess Celestia was sitting in her usual seat eating what appeared to be a crumpet. The chair opposite her was empty, reserved for her sister once she had finished her duties.

Princess Luna greeted a few of the nobles within as she walked over to the buffet. A few slices of toast would be enough for her. While levitating it over to Celestia’s table she observed her sister carefully.

Princess Celestia radiated an aura of calmness. No traces of the events from the night before could be seen in her features. Both of them knew full well that nopony would even dare to ask her about it, so it was quietly forgotten about. Then again, Luna knew that Celestia rarely forgot anything. Coupled with the burst of magic during the night and the sudden change in appearance of certain ponies, Luna was suspecting that her sister had been doing a little bit of pranking herself.

“A fine morning to you, dear sister.” Luna greeted as she approached the table. “I trust you slept well?”

“Good morning Luna.” Celestia nodded to her younger sister. “Indeed I had a very restful evening.”

“The same could not be said about your student and her friends. I believe they are having what one would call a very bad hair day.” Luna very carefully watched her sister as she walked past to towards her seat. A small twitch in the corners of Celestia’s mouth told Luna everything she needed to know.

“Oh, really? Well I think that problem shall subside in time.” Celestia avoided looking at her sister and levitated a large cup to her mouth.

I bet you know exactly how long it will take, don’t you Tia?

Luna carefully put down the toast she had been levitating on to a plate. While moving to sit down, she mentally went through various spells to insure that her sister would not be getting any ideas of trying to prank her while she slept. She would have to cast a spell reacting to movement, maybe even set up a few charged crystals to block any magic cast from afar. It seemed she would be up a while longer to prevent herself from falling into any traps.

Then Luna sat down.

* FFFFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPTPTTTTPTPTPPTPPTTTTBPBPBPTBTTTTT*

Luna sat rigid in her seat. The entire room had become silent as a tomb. Very slowly she lifted her gaze towards her sister. Celestia still had her muzzle buried in the large cup, one look at her eyes told Luna that she was most likely grinning like a foal.

So your revenge has been had. Well done, sister. This round goes to you.

Luna’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted. The sound of the whoopee cushion on her seat was not the only sound to erupt in the quiet room. From a table in one of the corners another eerily familiar sound could be heard.

“Hhhhhnngngngngngnngg.”

Author's Note

Well, that wraps up this little story and I hoped you enjoyed reading it.

Next story coming up will take place before Twilight came to Ponyville. I tried to see if I could fit it in somehow without having to break the chronological order of all of my stories, but found that to be impossible. So this will be the lone exception.

If you enjoy reading about Vinyl and Octavia, then stay tuned for the next story.
If you don’t like those two, then I hope to see you after that story again.

Plenty more Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo is planned for the future.

Chapter 1

Traveling by train was usually a very relaxed affair for ponies to cross Equestria.

Every town, city and village had at least one station. From small stations like the one in Ponyville, to the huge multi-tracked station in Manehatten they gave ponies the opportunity to reach faraway places in a relatively short amount of time. Only travelling by air was faster, but the airways were strictly governed by the pegasi of Cloudsdale who only allowed travel by air in rare cases, claiming that too many flying devices in the sky would mess up their meticulously planned weather.

The steam powered vehicle moved tirelessly across the landscape in a reasonably smooth manner as to make the ride as comfortable as possible for its passengers. Which in theory was fine, but one always had to take into account the other passengers onboard the train. Some of them were hardly noticeable, while others seemed to draw attention just by being there or by their actions.

A group of nine ponies definitely belonged to the latter type of passengers. The six adult mares and three fillies most certainly drew attention to themselves, something that they failed to notice as they were too wrapped up in thinking about their destination.

The antics of a particular pink pony were more outrageous than anything the slightly worried passengers had seen before. What started as a nice try to get all the ponies to sing along to a song the pink pony had started soon became uncomfortable when she seemed insistent to befriend every single pony in the same cart. Soon they fled the cart when they had the chance leaving the strange pink one with her friends.

“Hey! Where did everypony go?” Pinkie asked and seemed only now to realize that they had been alone in the cart for the last hour. She had been too busy trying to bounce up to the ceiling to notice them leave.

“Perhaps they left to go to the buffet in the food cart.” Rarity frowned at the thought of eating anything offered by the onboard kitchen. In her opinion you really had to be desperate to eat anything on the menu, since everything always tasted like lukewarm soggy cardboard. Or if you liked to play guessing games you could also go to the buffet and tried to match the object offered to the pictures on the menu. A game that even the most cunning of detectives had long given up on trying to win.

Rarity decided to focus her attention to more pleasant things and made a few last minute corrections on the dress that Fluttershy was currently wearing. The timid Pegasus did not mind at all that they were now alone in the cart. Unfamiliar ponies always made her nervous. Then again so did familiar ponies, but only much less than unfamiliar ones.

On the far side of the wagon another pegasus sat and grinned in a smug way. Rainbow Dash was playing a card game of poker against Applejack and had won three games in a row. The orange mare sitting opposite her frowned at the new cards she had been dealt and mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that? Did you just compliment my awesome skills with cards?” Rainbow Dash intensified the smugness of her grin. Applejack shot her an angry look.

“No. What Ah said was that yer cheatin’.” Applejack laid her cards on the table showing her laughably poor hand she was dealt. “Go on. Let’s see what ya have.”

Rainbow Dash proceeded to lay her own cards down, revealing that she had a full house. Applejack merely raised an eyebrow and continued to glare at her friend.

“That was pure luck.” The Pegasus tried her best to keep a straight face. Her friend however wasn’t convinced in the slightest.

“Spread yer wings.”

“What? I..uh..can’t.”

“And why would that be?” Applejack crossed her forelegs in front of her chest waiting for a good explanation.

“’Cause I….uhh. Because Twilight said I was not allowed to do so inside.” Rainbow Dash gave her friend an apologetic smile.

“She said ya were not to fly around inside. Didn’t say anythin’ about spreading them.”

“I have a wingcramp right now.”

“Wingcramp?” Pinkie Pie randomly appeared behind Rainbow Dash startling her. “Ooooooh…those can be nasty I heard. I wouldn’t know, because I don’t have any wings, but I bet it’s just as bad like when I get a cramp in my jaw from talking or eating too much. You know what help in those cases? Stretching them! Here let me help.”

Without waiting for permission and ignoring the beginning protest of Rainbow Dash, Pinkie grabbed one of her wings and stretched in out. Rainbow Dash let out a grunt of pain as she felt Pinkie tugging of her wing with earthpony fueled strength.

A selection of cards slowly fluttered to the ground, previously having been safely tucked away under her wing.

“Oh look! That’s what was giving you the cramps I bet.” Pinkie happily pointed towards the cards on the floor.

“Thanks Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash muttered towards her friend while not taking her eyes off Applejack.

“Glad to help!” Pinkie said and hopped over towards Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Ah knew it!” Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash, who began sweating bullets having been caught redhoofed cheating. After a few tense moments she sighed and shook out the cards she had stowed away under her other wing.

“Fine. You caught me. Sorry about that.” The Pegasus let her head hang in surrender and glanced up at the pony opposite her. “Best of seven?”

“Ok.” Applejack answered after a few seconds worth of hesitation. “But Ah’ll deal this time.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Away from the other ponies on the far side of the compartment the final adult pony was in the middle of sharing something she valued greatly. Knowledge! Unfortunately her audience was less than enthralled by her efforts.

“We’ve been over this before Twilight.” Scootaloo tried to reason with her unexpected teacher during the ride towards Canterlot.

“Yeah. We went over all of this when we were flowerfillies during yer brothers wedding. Don’t ya remember?” Applebloom in particular had been less than thrilled to be subjected on lessons about proper court etiquette, especially on a school free day.

Only Sweetie Belle remained somewhat attentive. Partly due to the fact that she enjoyed the complex social behaviors of the upper classes. It made her feel more grown up. And in other parts she wanted to do her best for her sister. Rarity had hinted often enough in the last few weeks how important the party was and how it could potentially increase her business. If it would help her sister then Sweetie Belle was determined to at least try her best to leave a good impression of the Canterlot ponies.

“Well see this as a refresher course.” Twilight ignored the protests and flipped over another page on the flip chart she had brought along. “Let continue with page 176: The proper way for asking if there are any napkins available.”

At that moment Spike entered through the door. He had been exploring the train in hopes of finding something edible that appealed to dragon tastes. After deducing that anything sold in the buffet was not acceptable for dragons and possibly not even acceptable for ponies, he had tried his luck with the vending machines dotted throughout the train. One helping of peanut butter on crackers later he made his way back towards the compartment where they were staying.

He eyed the situation in front of him cautiously. Twilight was obviously in the zone once more and had a more than bored audience. Applebloom saw him standing in the doorway and silently mouthed the words “Help us” while giving him a pleading look. Spike smiled and made his way towards the lavender unicorn.

“Hey Twilight, shouldn’t you be getting ready?” the purple dragon asked as he stood beside the unicorn.

“Ready? What do you mean?” she asked and stopped her lecture for the moment.

“Well we are only one hour away from Canterlot.” Spike explained and casually examined the current chart.

“Yes, so? We have plenty of time to get dressed once we are there.”

“Have you forgotten? We are being picked up from the station by a carriage sent by the princess. We’ll be heading straight to the castle.” Spike emphasized his point by waving his arms around in a theatrical fashion.

Twilight froze as the implications sank in. Without warning she suddenly burst into action.

“Sorry girls. Refresher course is over. We have to get ready! Spike clear this up please….oooh there isn’t much time left.” Twilight bolted towards her luggage and feverishly searched for her dress, all the time muttering that she had to be prepared.

Spike knew how Twilight had to have everything just perfect, especially on an occasion like this. She would no doubt be ready in only a couple of minutes, but would be fussing about the small details for at least half an hour. She was worse than Rarity in that matter in his opinion at least.

“Thanks Spike.” Applebloom gave the dragon a friendly pat on the back. “We couldn’ta lastest much longer. We owe ya one.”

“Hey, no problem.” Spike shrugged it off as no big deal. He knew what it was like to be subjected to lengthy lessons by Twilight.

The crusaders decided to investigate what the others were up to. Applebloom and Scootaloo decided to join in on the game played by Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Sweetie Belle was not too interested in playing a card game at the moment and made her way towards her sister who was still making last minute adjustments to Fluttershy’s dress.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Does your dress need any adjustments?” Rarity asked Pinkie Pie who with nothing else to do decided to help with Fluttershy’s dress. Help being more accurately defined as sticking her nose between Rarity and Fluttershy to get a closer look at what the fashionista was doing.

“Nah, I’m good.” Pinkie happily exclaimed and fiddled around with one of the artificial butterflies that were dotted throughout Fluttershy’s mane.

“Are you sure? It’s been a while since you wore it.” Rarity decided to tighten the fabric around Fluttershy’s midsection and began unweaving some of the stitches.

“Hmmm. Well I have been eating quite a lot of Mrs. Cake’s double glazed donuts with cream filling lately. Shouldn’t really matter though, all that sugary calorie laden goodness never sticks to me.” Pinkie beamed at Rarity.

“Aren’t you lucky.” Rarity deadpanned and made point not to look at the pink pony. How she maintained her figure was a mystery in itself considering that all she apparently ate were baked goods made at Sugar Cube Corner.

Sweetie Belle sat down behind Rarity and carefully and silently observed what she was doing. The filly knew that Rarity despised being interrupted during her work, something that Pinkie Pie obviously did not know or didn’t care too much about. Yet strangely Pinkie’s antics didn’t seem to bother Rarity as much as the filly thought they would. Then again it was nearly impossible to be mad or angry at her for too long. How angry could one be at a pony that just wants others to smile and be happy?

“Aren’t you just super excited?” Pinkie propped herself onto Fluttershy’s back and was now nose to nose with Rarity. Fluttershy let out a small “Eep” in surprise.

Ever in control, Rarity merely pushed Pinkie back with a hoof before answering her question.

“Yes, I am looking forward to meet some old acquaintances and hopefully meeting some new ones.” Rarity began tightening the fabric around Fluttershy’s midsection a bit more.

“Old ones? Oooooh, like your Prince from the Gala?” Pinkie asked innocently.

“No…. not him.” Rarity’s voice became frosty at the mere mention of Prince Blueblood. She tightened the fabric some more now with a bit more force than necessary.

“WHERE IS MY HAIRBRUSH?!” Twilight yelled in frustration from the other side of the compartment.

“I wonder what Twilight is doing? Better go check it out!” Pinkie’s attention was now tuned to the hairbrush searching lavender unicorn and thus did not hear that Rarity kept quietly mumbling to herself as she hopped away.

“Prince… if there ever was a pony that is undeserving of such a title it must be him. That big oaf with his pristinely groomed coat and mane.” Rarity was now beginning to grind her teeth and wasn’t paying too much attention on what she was doing.

“Too….tight….” Fluttershy barely managed to squeak out those two words. It was enough however to shake the fashionista turned impromptu torturer out of her trail of thought. Instantly she released the fabric from her magical grasp. Fluttershy took a huge gasp of air in return.

“Oh my. I am terribly sorry, Darling. I don’t know what came over me.” Rarity put a comforting hoof on her accidental victim. Fluttershy gave her a quick small smile indicating that there were no hard feelings.

“I guess he is still a bit of a sore spot for you?” she correctly stated. Rarity rolled her eyes at the thought of him, but kept her cool this time.

“You could say that. It just annoys me to no end that such a shallow buffoon parades around thinking he is the best that Canterlot has to offer. Not to mention that he ruined my very first Grand Galloping Gala AND made me ruin a perfectly fine dress.” Rarity snorted in disgust, a very unladylike gesture but appropriate in this case. “I just wish somepony would teach him a lesson.”

The last sentence was spoken quietly and was not meant to be heard by anypony. Fluttershy had heard it but chose not to comment on it. Unbeknownst to both of the mares Sweetie Belle had also heard the sentence and took mental note of it.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Yer cheatin’.”

“Me? Why do you think I am cheating?”

A very similar discussion and taken place not too long ago at the very same table. This time on a smaller scale however as Applebloom pointed an accusatory hoof at Scootaloo.

“Spread yer wings!”

“I can’t do that indoors!”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but giggle at the display in front of her. A quick glance to Applejack told her that the farmpony was equally amused by the very similar back and forth that they had had on the very same subject.

“Says who?” Applebloom demanded to know and glared at her friend sitting opposite her and between the adult mares.

“Twilight. Weren’t you paying attention to her lessons? Chart 65 was about not flying in ballrooms.” Scootaloo explained and returned the glare full strength.

“Ah was payin’ attention, ‘cause it wasn’t chart 65. It was chart 72! And this ain’t no ballroom.” Applebloom waved a hoof around to make her point.

“Fine! Here!” Scootaloo buzzed her small wings. The blurring motion concealed a lone card that fell down alongside her flank onto the floor where she quickly covered it up with her tail. Had Rainbow Dash not been sitting on the side where the card fell and had she not been paying close attention, she would never have seen that clever move.

Good trick! Rainbow Dash couldn’t fight the grin spreading on her face.

“Seems like ya haven’t just been practicing flyin’ lessons with her.” Applejack smirked as both pegasi tried in vain to look offended by that remark. Applebloom tried her best to keep up her angry glare, but couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Allright ponies. Show me watcha got.” Applejack laid down her cards revealing a full house.

Applebloom sighed and laid down her cards that were nothing but a meager pair of sevens. Scootaloo fidgeted around a bit before laying her cards down. With a look of surprise she glanced at the three of clubs that somehow shouldn’t have been there and ruined her hand.

Rainbow Dash casually laid down her own cards. “Four aces! Read em and weep!”

“Hey! That was my….” Scootaloo managed to stop herself from revealing anything more. Rainbow Dash had carefully snuck the Ace of Spades that Scootaloo had hidden under her tail away by using her own tail, replacing it with the three of clubs.

Rainbow Dash gave her a wink. “Never play with a master of cards, Scoot.”

“Pfft. Master of cards….yeah right.” Applejack shook her head, but couldn’t help smiling. The reason for it was based more on the interaction between the two pegasi. It was obvious to her that the bond they shared was getting stronger and she fully approved. Scootaloo was happier and Rainbow Dash had lost some of her egoistical sometimes downright narcissistic behavior.

“We need to get READY! There isn’t much time!” Twilight was in the middle of styling her mane when she voiced her concern with maybe too much volume.

The four ponies at the table glanced at each other and mutually decided that they had better get ready too. Not because of too little time, but rather wanting to avoid another one of Twilight’s little episodes when she got too stressed out by something.

Once the train pulled into Canterlot station the mares and fillies were ready for the Garden Party hosted by Princess Celestia. One by one the exited the train and made their way towards the awaiting carriage.

“Friends! Let’s make this an evening to remember!” Twilight happily exclaimed joined soon after by her friends.

Chapter 2

The journey to Canterlot Castle did not take very long. What did take long however, was their entrance into the castle itself.

While they were on time and even a little bit early, a lot of other guests had arrived even earlier. As per custom Princess Celestia would greet every single guest personally, which in turn created a long queue waiting outside for their turn.

After what seemed like ages the group of friends was allowed entrance and hurriedly went inside. The large foyer was dominated by a large staircase leading up into to castle’s interior. Waiting at the top of the stairs was Princess Celestia, patiently awaiting the arrival of each guest. Her friendly smile grew warmer when she saw Twilight and her friends ascend the stairs towards her.

“Twilight Sparkle. So glad you could make it.” She greeted her pupil and entourage with a slightly longer bow than that which she gave to her other guests. The ponies repeated the gesture and felt welcomed into the castle. Any possible nervousness was blown away by the genuinely friendly welcoming by the Princess.

“We are so happy to be here Princess.” Twilight said and was looking forward to possibly talk to the Princess in private later on to discuss her latest studies.

“I understand you will be staying for the evening?” the Princess asked, although no doubt she already knew the answer.

“If it is not too much of a bother, your highness.” Rarity felt the need to chime in.

“Of course not. Please make yourself at home. I’ll send somepony to show you to your rooms.”

“That won’t be necessary. I think we can manage that small task.” An all too familiar voice spoke up.

The ponies turned their attention away from the Princess and looked over to their right. A large double door was halfway open and two very welcome figures stepped out.

“Shining Armor!” Twilight happily exclaimed and ran up to her big brother giving him a big hug, before turning to the pony at his side. “Princess Cadence!”

Both mares started with “Sunshine” before remembering that they were not alone. They laughed and shared a hug instead.

“You made it!” Twilight stated while the Prince and Princess greeted Twilight’s friends.

“Of course we did, Twily. Mom and Dad are here as well.”

“Really? Where?” Twilight was practically beaming with joy at the prospect of seeing all her family.

“They are in the ballroom at the moment. Doing some mingling with the other guests. No doubt they are already bored out of their minds.” Shining Armor joked, earning small disapproving cough from his wife. One quick glance to her told him that she was merely playing the part and no doubt shared his opinion on the current state of his parents.

“Shall we show you your rooms?” Cadence asked and pointed an elegant hoof towards the door they had entered. Shining Armor led the way deeper into the castle.

“I see the uniform still fits.” Twilight remarked as she walked beside her brother. He was wearing the same uniform he had worn during the wedding.

“Hey, running the Crystal Empire is difficult business. No slacking off for me.” He replied with a grin and puffed his chest out. Twilight merely giggled. “Besides Cadence keeps me busy.”

“That sounds closer to the truth.” Twilight remarked, earning an amused snort from Shining Armor.

As the siblings led the way towards their destination, Princess Cadence let herself fall back intentionally until she was walking beside the three young fillies.

“I have to say, you three are just adorable in those dresses.” She said and smiled at the fillies. They were wearing the dresses that they had worn for the wedding, with minor modifications by Rarity to pep them up a bit.

“Thank you Princess!” all three chimed in unison.

“Please, call me Cadence. After all you were my flowerfillies.” Princess Cadence was a lot less formal with her friends, something that was part of her charm.

While both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had an aura around them that demanded formal speech patterns and behavior, Princess Cadence had a much more accessible persona that made her so beloved by all ponies. Especially by her own subjects in the Crystal Empire, who after the tyrannical rule of King Sombra welcomed the kind and gentle Cadence with open hearts.

“And how is your crusading going?” she asked and giggled at the surprised looks the fillies gave her.

“How do you know about that?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Twilight writes about your crusading from time to time. No luck so far?”

“No, we are still trying to earn our cutie marks.” Scootaloo said and sighed. Applebloom suddenly had an idea.

“Perhaps we can find our marks here!” she received some skeptical looks from her fellow crusaders.

“Like what?” Sweetie Belle asked and turned to Cadence for some sort of inspiration. The Princess merely smiled and waited for events to unfold by themselves.

“Perhaps somethin’ fancy.” Applebloom looked around in the hallway they were currently walking along. “Perhaps makin’ one of them things.” She nodded towards the wall beside them.

“A tapestry? This particular one I believe took fifty years to make.” Princess Cadence explained.

“Yeah, so that’s out of the question. What about window washers?” Scootaloo chimed in.

“Seriously, Scoots? Window washers? Besides it would take us also about fifty years to clean one of them. Look how big they are.” Applebloom was not too keen on having a cutie mark in window washing if it involved washing one of the huge glass windows. The one they were currently passing was taller than their barn.

“We could test the beds of the Princesses.” Sweetie Belle suggested. Applebloom and Scootaloo exchanged a look.

“How would that work?” they asked.

“Well a Princess has to be able to sleep like a Princess, right? So before one of them lies down for the night we test them first to see if there are any uncomfortable spots in the mattress and if the pillows are fluffy enough.” Sweetie Belle explained in a dead serious tone. Cadence couldn’t help but laugh.

“What would that cutie mark look like, I wonder.” She said and stopped her laughter when it became apparent that Sweetie Belle was less than amused. “All good things take time. Cutie marks are no different I am afraid.”

“We know.” The three fillies let their heads hang low.

“But if you do earn your cutie marks, then let me know. We’ll turn this party into a cute-ceanera.” Cadence smiled along with the fillies as their moods picked up instantly at the prospect of possibly one-upping Diamond Tiara’s cute-ceanera. The Princess listened with fascination as they came up with more ideas to earn their marks, as they travelled towards their rooms.

________________________________________________________________________

“And this is your room, fillies.” Shining Armor said as he opened the last door of the rooms they had been given. With wide-eyed wonder the three crusaders entered the room. The bed alone was as big as their entire clubhouse. Elegant furnishings and an amazingly soft carpet filled out the rest of the spacious room. The large window gave the occupants a look out over the castle’s gardens. For once the fillies were speechless.

“Not too small I hope?” Shining Armor casually asked.

“It’s perfect!” they chimed in response with wide grins. All three of them suddenly wishing Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were here to witness this.

“Well let’s get going.” He said and waved them back towards the door.

“Going? We only just got here.” Scootaloo was confused. Had they been subject to some kind of cruel joke? Were they only shown the room and them immediately evicted again?

“The room is meant for sleeping in. We have a party to attend, remember?”

“Oh, right.” Scootaloo was hesitant to leave. The thick carpet was just too comfy to leave behind.

“Come on Scoots! Ah am gettin’ hungry!” Applebloom sensed her friend reluctance to part with the carpet.

“The carpet looks good enough to eat.” The pegasus was still amazed by the feeling under her hooves. It was almost like walking on clouds.

“Well then stay here an’ munch on it. Ah’ll rather have some of the delicious treats downstairs.” Applebloom’s stomach rumbled in anticipation, causing her to blush and Sweetie Belle to giggle.

“I am not munching on any carpet.” Scootaloo said and finally parted from said object. The fillies turned to Shining Armor, who had suddenly stifled a laugh.

“What’s funny?” Sweetie Belle asked and looked up to the Prince, who had himself back under control.

“Nothing. I am just feeling a bit hungry myself. Shall we go?” He held the door open for the fillies who then walked out the door and made their way over where the rest of their friends were already waiting.

“Ah bet this will be the most exciting thing ever! Just ya wait!” Applebloom’s enthusiasm was infectious and the fillies were almost bouncing in place from sheer excitement.

________________________________________________________________

Boredom. Sheer and utter boredom. A filly’s worst nightmare.

What had begun as an interesting experience soon evolved into the most boring moments in their life.

It had been fun being introduced to all kinds of important and famous ponies at first. Names did not stay with them for long however as the ponies they had just met soon disappeared to talk to other important famous ponies. They were just three fillies and not noteworthy enough.

There were exceptions. Twilight’s parents were very friendly and interested in the fillies, but understandably wanted to talk to their children the most.

Another surprising couple had been introduced by Rarity. The monocle wearing unicorn stallion with the funny little moustache and his extraordinarily beautiful and elegant unicorn mare at his side were known as Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis respectively. While their names didn’t mean anything to Scootaloo or Applebloom, Sweetie Belle knew them because Rarity had often mentioned them. Apparently Fancy Pants was one of the most important ponies in Canterlot and Fleur de Lis was the premier fashion model in Equestria.

Despite their fame and the Canterlot accent, that had begun to grate on Applebloom’s nerves, they were friendly and did not treat the fillies any differently than any other guest. They had even come back to them after a while to ask them how they liked Canterlot thus far. The fillies were taken aback somewhat as they had not reckoned with anypony being that nice to them. Not after the first dozen or so guests they had met at least. Scootaloo felt bad having mocked Fleur’s seemingly constant posing after their first encounter.

But for those few nice ponies they met, dozens of indifferent ponies crossed their path. The chat after each introduction was always the same.

“And where are you three from?” they would ask.

“We are from Ponyville.” One of the crusaders would answer back.

“Ponyville, really? Well I have to go.” And with those words they were not seen again.

The worst offender was a white unicorn stallion with a blond mane. He had not even bothered to introduce himself to them and bluntly asked them if they were the daughters of anypony he should know.

“Well we are from Ponyville and…” Sweetie Belle’s explanation was cut off by the stallion.

“Ugh. Ponyville, that uncouth little peasant village? How did you end up here? Well it doesn’t matter, at least you have the chance to be in the presence of somepony of my grace for once in your lives. As long as your presence is on the other side of the room of course.” With those words he left the three fillies sitting dumbfounded.

“Did that really just happen?” Scootaloo asked nopony in particular. The three just kept glaring at the stallion as he walked through the room.

“Geez, Ah wonder how he doesn’t keep bumpin’ into things with his nose so far up in the air. Bet ya he can’t see where he’s going most of the time.” Applebloom commented.

“Then again who would want to bump into him? Bet even the walls move out of the way to avoid him.” Scootaloo joked and laughed along with Applebloom. Sweetie Belle did not join in and was much more interested in her sister’s reaction to the stallion. She had spotted her talking to a different earthpony stallion wearing sunglasses and a ridiculous mane style.

When Rarity noticed the rude stallion she made a very apparent show out of turning away from him, something that the unicorn didn’t even notice or chose not to notice. Judging by her sister’s then obviously angry expression the stallion was somepony she didn’t like one bit.

Sweetie Belle jumped a bit when a familiar voice sounded from behind them.

“How’s it going girls?” Rainbow Dash asked and trotted up behind them with Fluttershy in tow.

The timid yellow pegasus felt really uncomfortable around so many ponies she didn’t know. It didn’t bother her that they paid her not attention, in fact she was happy to be ignored. She had stayed by Rainbow Dash’s side all the time, still somewhat uneasy about possible changeling attacks that might occur.

“This is really really boring Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo lamented and received an understanding pat on the back by her honorary big sister.

“And there ain’t nothin’ ta eat!” Applebloom was beginning to lose hope of ever finding food. Here in this ballroom all that was served were drinks.

“The food is served outside. Should still take a while I’m afraid.” Rainbow Dash informed the little country filly.

“Ah’m gonna starve.” She murmured.

“Bet you wish we still had that carpet now, huh?” Scootaloo nudged Applebloom in the side, causing her stomach to grumble once more.

“What’s mah sister doin’?” Applebloom asked. Applejack had not been seen by her for quite some time.

“She is trying to keep Pinkie Pie in check.” Rainbow Dash laughed along with the girls for a moment. The task that had been bestowed on Applejack was by no means easy.

“Hey, do you know who that is?” Sweetie Belle asked Fluttershy who looked to where the filly was pointing.

“The unicorn stallion?” she asked to which Sweetie Belle nodded. “That’s Prince Blueblood.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes narrowed as she glared angrily at the Prince. She could understand her sister’s low opinion of him. She had heard plenty of it after the Grand Galloping Gala that was for sure.

“Did you find any Wonderbolts?” Scootaloo asked hopefully. Those were ponies worth meeting.

“No Wonderbolts here tonight, Scoot. Which is totally lame I might add.” Rainbow Dash was bummed out by that fact herself. She had been warned by Twilight before that the Wonderbolts might not be attending. Hope that they might make a surprise visit after all had kept her going. Now it was just waiting around for something to eat as she did not care for smalltalk with ponies she didn’t know or that didn’t want to know her to begin with.

“Do we have to hang around here until we die of starvation or boredom?” Scootaloo asked and looked pleadingly at her surrogate sister.

“Nah, why don’t you go explore the castle. Just be back when we all go into the garden for some food.” Rainbow Dash ruffled the purple mane of the filly and watched as they bolted out of the nearest door.

“Do you think that is wise to let them loose in the castle?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“Pfff….there are guards everywhere. What’s the worst that could happen?” Rainbow Dash waved her friends concerns away with a hoof.

_________________________________________________________________

“You shall not pass.” The guard standing beside a locked door gave the three fillies a serious stare.

“Why not? We are friends with the Princess and the door has her name written on it.” Scootaloo explained and pointed a hoof at the door.

“Which Princess would that be?” The guard asked confused.

“Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. You know….Princess Cadence. Her name is written right there! Well, at least part of it. See?” Scootaloo continued to point at the door.

“That says Armory. Not Amore.” The guard explained.

“Well perhaps somepony made a mistake.”

“Do you three know what an armory is?” the guard asked. The three fillies shook their heads. “That is the place where we store our weapons and armor.”

“Coooooool” the filles beamed at the guard with wide smiles. “Can we have a look?”

“What? No!” the prospect of letting three fillies loose in the armory was not very pleasant. “It’s dangerous in there.”

“We won’t try anything dangerous. Maybe a bit of sword juggling.” Scootaloo explained.

“Or shooting with bow and arrow.” Applebloom continued.

“Or just loading a cannon.” Sweetie Belle chimed in her part.

“No, no, no. I am not letting you in and that is final!” to make his point the guard stamped one hoof on the floor. The fillies were not intimidated one bit, but gave in seeing that the guard would not let them pass.

“Can ya give us directions to the nearest kitchen?” Applebloom asked and caught the guard off guard for once at the sudden change of direction the discussion had been going thus far.

“Uh…down the hallway, take a right all the way to the end. There take another right and go through the third door on your left.” He explained automatically.

“Thanks!” the fillies bolted down the hallway before the guard could react any further. Shrugging he continued his otherwise rather boring task of guarding the door to the armory.

__________________________________________________________________

After a mad dash down the hallways of the castle the three fillies arrived at their destination. Eagerly awaiting food they stormed inside, only to find that the room was empty. It was indeed a kitchen, only one that apparently had not been in use for quite some time. Applebloom moaned at the absence of food.

“Now what do we do?” she said and inspected a nearby cupboard. It was empty save for a few cobwebs.

“We’ll just follow the hallway and check every door. There has to be something for us to do or eat.” Sweetie Belle trotted back out into the hallway and was soon joined by her friends. Together they moved from door to door, most of them were locked and the few that weren’t were empty.

Roughly fifteen minutes and many doors later they heard noises coming from around the corner. Carefully they peeked around and saw to ponies talking to each other. Applebloom’s heart jumped higher as she saw that the two ponies were dressed like chefs.

“The appetizers are all prepared, as well as the desserts. Now all that we must prepare for is the main course.” One chef said to the other.

“Aren’t we using this kitchen for the main course?” the other asked.

“No, we are to use the kitchen closer to the ballroom where they will be dining. The rest of the staff will take the appetizers outside in about half an hour. When the guests have decided on the meals they wish to eat we…..” the rest of what the chef had said was lost as they rounded a corner on the opposite end of the corridor.

Carefully the fillies made their way towards the door the chefs had been standing in front of. Applebloom hoped that the door wasn’t locked and to her joy it wasn’t. Quickly as not to be noticed by anypony the stormed inside and closed the door behind them.

Three sets of eyes grew wide at the sight before them. The kitchen was about the size of their classroom. Unlike their classroom this room had three doors, including the one they had used. Every free space of wall had shelves or cupboards occupying them, a large table dominated the middle of the room and on that table was….

“Food!” Applebloom cried out with glee and ran to the large table, finally standing on her hind legs and resting her forelegs on the table’s edge. She barely managed to peek over the high table and caught sight of trays and trays full of treats. Her stomach let out an approving grumble at the sight.

“How come there are no ponies here?” Scootaloo wondered and trotted over to the door on the far wall. Sweetie Belle decided to investigate the third and final door.

“Ah can’t reach!” Applebloom tried jumping but apart from gaining a better look at the delicious treats she still could not reach them.

“I found the kitchen!” Scootaloo called from the door she had opened. What puzzled her was how clean the cooking area she had found was. If there had been any cooking going on in here recently any pony involved had covered up their tracks very well. She carefully trotted inside and held an eye open for any ponies in the room.

“This door leads to another hallway.” Sweetie Belle explained and shut the door she had been inspecting. “Nopony to be seen however.”

“C’mere Sweetie. Ah need a boost.” Applebloom waved her friend over who raised an eyebrow in return.

“So you can mess up my dress? I don’t think so. I promised Rarity I wouldn’t get into trouble and messing up my dress she made is very big trouble in her eyes.” Sweetie Belle didn’t move, much to Applebloom’s growing distress.

“But Ah need somethin’ ta eat right now! Would ya really let yer best friend starve?”

A loud scraping noise interrupted the little unicorn’s reply. Both fillies watched in silence as Scootaloo pushed something over the spotless white tiles towards them.

“I found a stool!” The pegasus said once she was in view of the other fillies.

“That’s a pot.” Sweetie Belle wondered if it had ever been used as its surface was absolutely spotless. The shiny silver pot was larger than either one of the fillies and judging by Scootaloo’s expression also rather heavy.

“Pot, stool….same thing.” The orange filly explained once she had pushed her prize over to her friends. With considerable effort she lifted one side up tipping the pot on its side with a loud bang. A second bang echoed through the room as she finally tipped it once more so that the opening was now on the bottom.

“Tadaaa!” she pointed a hoof at her work and grinned at her friends. Applebloom wasted no time and hopped on the pot, now she was able to reach the table with ease. Her eyes grew wide once more as she finally laid eyes on everything the table had to offer.

On each tray a different neatly arranged edible treat was offered. She didn’t recognize anything offered, but everything looked absolutely delicious. Some were simple little stacks of various foods held together with what looked like fancy toothpicks, others were delicately arranged like flowers or little trees.

“There wasn’t anypony in the kitchen, so I figured they wouldn’t mind if we borrow one of their pots for a moment.” Scootaloo explained while hopping up beside Applebloom. The large pot was large enough to let all three fillies stand beside each other. Sweetie Belle looked around fearing that somepony might suddenly appear and be mad at them.

Applebloom was unsure where to start, so she simply plopped the nearest food item she could reach in her mouth, a flower carved out of something orange.

Scootaloo carefully watched her friend eat the flower and waited for any kind of reaction. Applebloom kept chewing for a moment without saying a word.

“What is it?” the impatient pegasus asked.

“A carrot.” Applebloom answered after swallowing.

“Seriously? Why would somepony make a flower out of a carrot?”

“Beats me, but it did taste good. Let’s try some more!” Applebloom and Scootaloo began sampling one of each items offered on the trays.

“They are called appetizers.” Sweetie Belle explained from her position on the floor.

“What do they do?” Scootaloo asked while plopping a small bird made out of some dark green stuff in her mouth. She chewed for a moment and scrunched up her face with obvious dislike. “Ugh…seaweed.”

“Appetizers are supposed to make you hungry for more. They are served a bit in advance of the main course.” Sweetie Belle continued her explanation.

“How’dya know that?” Applebloom peeked over to her friend.

“Chart 101 from Twilight.” She nervously scraped a hoof across the tiles on the floor. “Do you really think we should be doing this?”

“Well it is technically for us anyway. We’re just having an earlier serving.” Scootaloo reasoned and searched for something to take away the taste of the seaweed.

Sweetie Belle sighed and hopped up next to her friend. Finally giving in to her own hunger and choosing one of the carrot flowers. She marveled at the delicate work and felt bad for eating something that had obviously been made with great care, but the taste was really good.

“These here appetizers ain’t really filling me up.” Applebloom noted after having sampled nearly everything within her reach.

“That’s the point of them.” Sweetie Belle ate one of the seaweed birds and scrunched up her face the same way Scootaloo had.

“What’s in the cupboards?” Scootaloo eyed the nearest one, but before she could do anything Applebloom hopped down from their improvised stool and trotted over to it. One tug on the door and the cupboard turned out to be a refrigerator instead.

“Jackpot!” Apllebloom stepped back to take in the sight inside the refrigerator. The treats on the table were the starters, but now they had found the dessert.

Cakes, jelly, pudding and even icecream could be seen amongst things neither one of the fillies could identifiy. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hopped down from the pot and hurriedly ran over to the fridge, their journey was stopped by Applebloom however.

“Girls! We have an important task ahead of us.” The little earthpony turned around to face them. “It is our royal duty to make sure that these desserts are worthy for a Princess! And we may just find our cutie marks in the process of doin’ so.” She beamed at her friends who’s face lit up at the prospect of not only having a decent helping of the best desserts Canterlot had to offer, but also finally and hopefully acquire their long sought after cutie marks.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ROYAL FOOD TESTERS! YAY!” the shouted at the top of their lungs and bolted towards the delicious treats.

________________________________________________________________

After each having a small bowl of delicious icecream with bits of fresh fruit inside that had been topped off with whipped cream, they considered what to try next. So many choices left them unsure what to try next.

“It’s a shame Candence isn’t here, then we could focus on the things she likes first.” Sweetie Belle remarked and was torn between trying a fruit cocktail and a slice of cake.

“Or any other one of the Princesses.” Applebloom added and eyed a large pie in front of her. Its contents were a mystery, but she hoped it was filled with apples.

“Heh….well it’s lucky that we happen to have a princess here isn’t it?” Scootaloo grinned at her friends. Her two friends quickly looked around the room, but found it to be empty apart from themselves.

“What do ya mean?” Applebloom asked. Without warning Scootaloo hopped onto Sweetie Belle’s back, her belly resting on the unicorns back and her legs dangling beside her midsection.

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle’s protest was ignored by the pegasus.

“We have the wings.” Scootaloo buzzed her wings for a moment. “We have the horn.” She pointed at Sweetie Belle’s horn. “Behold your new Princess Scootabelle!”

“That’s a strange name.” Sweetie Belle remarked.

“Better than Sweetieloo.” The pegasus answered back. Sweetie Belle had to agree and trotted a few paces away from Applebloom who watched them with amusement. Thankfully Scootaloo was light enough that it didn’t bother her too much, she just feared her dress might get damaged somehow.

“So now dear servant Applebloom. The Princess demands to be fed!” Scootaloo flashed a grin at the unmoving Applebloom.

“So yer a Princess.” The yellow filly smirked. “Go on, prove it.”

“Uh…how?” Scootaloo asked.

“Ah don’t know….maybe fly a bit? All Princesses can fly.” Applebloom chuckled and was provoking her friend. The comment about being a servant had stung her a bit.

“I don’t think that is a very good idea.” Sweetie Belle tried to protest. It was in vain however as the challenge issued by Applebloom was hitting a sore spot of Scootaloo.

“Yeah ok! We’ll just fly around the room a bit and then see who gets the last laugh!” Scootaloo was beginning to get slightly angry, something that happened when her inability to fly was directly mentioned. She suddenly wrapped her legs around Sweetie Belle’s midsection.

*Squeak*

All three fillies froze at the sudden high pitched squeak that had emanated from the unicorn. Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle face, which wasn’t easy considering that she was still on the unicorn’s back. Sweetie Belle seemed to be just as surprised at the sound then the others were.

“What was that?” Scootaloo asked and looked over to Applebloom, who merely shrugged. Their beginning argument momentarily forgotten at the revelation of new events.

“I don’t know.” Sweetie Belle said and seemed a little embarrassed.

“What did ya do Scoots?” Applebloom trotted over and stood before them.

“Nothing. I just wrapped my legs around her like this.”

*Squeak*

Scootaloo looked over to Applebloom with a devilish grin spreading on her lips. The earthpony was on the verge of laughing. She squeezed the unicorn again, this time a bit more slowly.

*Squuuuueeeeeak*

The long drawn out sound caused Applebloom to burst out laughing. Sweetie Belle wasn’t amused.

“Well then Princess Squeaky Belle. Let’s see what ya got.” Scootaloo continued her motions each time causing the unicorn to involuntarily make that noise.

*Squeak*

Sweetie Belle tried giving her an angry look, which was ignored by her friend.

*Squeak*

The unicorn tried to shake her off, causing Scootaloo to grab on tighter.

*SQUEAK*

Applebloom was nearly rolling on the floor laughing.

“Hey” *squeak* “this” *squeak* “isn’t” *squeak* “funny!” *squeak*

Scootaloo paused for a moment due to her own laughing. Sweetie Belle deemed herself safe for the moment and tried shaking off the pegasus clinging to her back, but she held on and would not budge. After regaining some of her energy Scootaloo decided to test Sweetie Belle’s newfound ability to the fullest. Taking a deep breath she began to squeeze the unicorn as fast as she could.

*squeaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueak*

She had to stop as her laughing made it impossible to continue.

“S…sorry Sweetie Belle, but this is just too hilarious.” Scootaloo apologized to her friend, but remained on her back nevertheless.

“Glad you are having so much fun.” Sweetie Belle grumbled as a reply. Her face was flushed and was now taking deep breaths of air.

Applebloom decided to intervene in case the Pegasus decided to continue her assault on the hapless unicorn. While still giggling she took out the pie she had been eyeing earlier from the refrigerator and trotted with it on her back towards her friends. Slowly she circled them making sure she had both their attention.

Finally she sat down and held the pie with unknown filling in her hooves.

“Well Princess. Weren’t ya goin’ ta give us a demonstration of yer flyin’?” she held up the pie as a reward.

Scootaloo smirked at her friend, any lingering anger she may have felt before had been swept away by Sweetie Belle actions, as involuntary as they might have been. She grabbed Sweetie Belle once more causing her to squeak a final time and started buzzing her wings.

The training Rainbow Dash had been giving her, as well as teaching her about proper wingcare led to some unexpected results. As she pumped her wings harder and faster, she actually achieved some lift. It wasn’t really flying, but more of a hover. Alone she was able to hover an inch or two above the ground for a few brief moments. It was a start, but still far from her goal of taking to the skies.

Now she had the added weight of Sweetie Belle which complicated things. Determined she buzzed her wings as hard as she could. Sweetie Belle let out a gasp as she felt herself slowly being lifted up. With only the tips of her hooves on the ground the unicorn began to panic.

She didn’t care much for flying at all. Anytime the fillies would do crusading that involved flying or going up to high places she would be terrified. Sweetie Belle was perfectly fine remaining on the ground forever.

Suddenly uneasy she used her hooftips to try and get back down. The movement shifted Scootaloo’s unstable hover into an even more unstable forward movement. She tried braking as best she could, but they were heading straight for a now very surprised looking Applebloom.

Before using the earthpony as a cushion to halt their sudden movement, Applebloom threw the pie up over her head and behind her. As the fillies crashed together a lone pie was airborne and flying towards the door that Sweetie Belle had previously investigated and led to a hallway.

The timing could not have been more tragically perfect as the door opened. The newcomer didn’t have a chance to avoid the delicious missile heading towards them. The pony didn’t even have the chance to blink as the pie slammed into its face with a squelch.

Three fillies stared with shock at the pony standing in the doorway. Slowly the form that had contained the pie slid off the pony’s face, falling to the ground with a loud clatter.

Scootaloo was the first to regain the use of her voice.

“P…Princess Luna!”