Luna and Tiberius: The Nightly Crusade

Chapters

Chapter One: Shoes fit for a Princess
Chapter Two: Dreaming of Bunnies
Chapter Three: Prank Until Dawn
Chapter Four: A Prank too Far

Chapter One: Shoes fit for a Princess

LUNA AND TIBERIUS: THE NIGHTLY CRUSADE
Chapter One: Shoes fit for a Princess
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Luna’s eyes opened very slowly as she woke from her deep slumber. The room was dark and a chill air was breezing through the window. The night had just begun. It was always such a treat to wake up to the moon rise. A small warm, ball of fur began rousing next to her from underneath her bed covers. Luna lifted the blanket up to see a possum curled up against her chest.

“Good Night, Tibbles,” Luna cooed to her pet and closest companion.

Tibbles was of course simply a nickname for the animal, his real name being Tiberius. It was a fitting name for such a cute and cuddle creature of the night. Tiberius gave Luna a questioning stare and Luna who had long since learned how to understand him let out a sigh. “Yes, I’m afraid so. We do have to guard over the night, but, “Luna began speaking with an increased excitement, “we may get to go to the Everfree Forest. Maybe we will meet one of our dear friends on the way.”

Tiberius uncurled himself and stretched on Luna’s bed, reminding the princess that she too must be ready for travel. Luna threw the blankets off and jumped out of bed proclaiming in her Royal Canterlot voice, “THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT HAS AWOKEN, PREPARE MINE BREAKFEST POSTHASTE!”

The voice rang out loudly, and carried itself through her bedroom door and into the corridors beyond. The servants working in Luna’s section of the castle had gotten used to hearing their princess wake up like this by now; at first it had been a delight to see the confusion and shock on their faces whenever she used the voice. Her elder sister never used such tones with her servants, and soon enough Luna learned that she did not need the voice for all communication with those under her position, but it still carried enough volume and weight for the important things in life; such as food.

Luna had Tiberius aid her in finding the royal shoes that she had flung off after last night’s watch. She had been forced to search deep into the sewers of Canterlot for a monster, and when she finally found it…well it left its disgusting marks against her royal armor. Her shoes had seen much better days. It was never fun to encounter an Otyugh.

After some searching Luna had found the first shoe underneath her hooded jacket in the corner. Tiberius began making a clicking noise causing Luna to look over, Tiberius had found another one of Luna’s shoes underneath the bed. The next shoe was hidden behind Luna’s dresser, however it got there she will never know. But for all her searching Luna simply couldn’t find her last, and final shoe.

After a few more minutes of searching Luna finally decided to give up. She looked longingly at her three light blue shoes and desired to bring them together with their lost sibling. She stared at them with increasing worry though, as she realized the muck that was stuck to her shoes…was something far fouler then dirt. Sewers were places not to tread carelessly, or with newly found hindsight, at all.

The next thing Luna did was use a brush to untangle her mane, she looked into the mirror as she worked out the various knots in her blue hair. It was painful but after a few minutes of excruciating agony, she finally got her mane straightened out. There were still a few bandages on her face from the hard battle, but she had won and in the end that was something the Otyugh couldn’t claim.

After that though, she had to wonder if she had not been missing something. Other than her poor lost shoe, she felt as though she had been missing something dreadfully important. She looked over at Tiberius and asked, “oh Tibbles…what is it that I am forgetting to do?”

Tiberius gave her another long stare.

Luna replied, “I know full well that you are a possum and do not care for the rudimentary task of royal grooming. But I could still use your aid, if you are willing to offer it.” Luna gave the possum a sad, puppy dog stare, hoping to obtain some sympathy from the rodent.

Tiberius looked around the room, and then back to her before scratching his head.

Luna began saying, “so you are just as lost as I-“ she paused as she watched him. “MY CROWN!”

Luna searched for a few more minutes until she found the crown on her vanity mirror. She had been staring at the crown the entire time she had brushed her mane. It was a simply little slip up, and now that the crisis, was averted she trotted out of her room with the intent of eating an early night dinner.

***

Luna along with Tiberius riding on her back, entered the small dining room, one that was privately used only by the two sisters of Canterlot. Celestia was sitting down at the table, she looked tired from a hard day’s work. Luna walked in nearly bouncing on her hooves in joy as she saw her sister. Celestia took a sip of her tea which was held afloat by her magic, and looked up at Luna. Luna saw Celestia’s kind smile and said, “good night my dearest sister. How has the day been?”

Celestia took another sip of tea before setting the cut down gently and saying, “the day has moved forward as usual. Tell me though, did you forget something?”

Luna stopped bouncing and looked down at her bare hooves and said lamely, “I could not find my last shoe…I thought I’d look ridiculous if I wore three shoes without the forth. Please forgive me for my sub-standard appearance.”

Celestia looked at Luna and then her gaze followed down to Luna’s hooves. Celestia then began grinning madly, as she tried her hardest to stifle a building laughter. Luna felt offended by her elder sister’s laughter and stomped her hoof down saying, “’tis not funny dear sister, we have searched for our missing shoe throughout all of our room, but simply couldn’t find it.”

Celestia’s laughter finally broke free and she could no longer contain herself. Embarrassment, and shame flooded Luna as her elder sister continued her laughter. Finally after her laughter began to slow down, Celestia managed to say, “your hoof...”

Luna could not understand what had gotten into her sister. Was there something stuck to her hoof? Looking down at her forehooves Luna couldn’t see anything wrong. She checked her rear hooves and saw nothing out of the ordinary there either. She had her shoe on, but that was not so odd. Luna looked back at Celestia and said, “I do not see what is so…oh.”

Luna looked again at her rear hooves and she was indeed wearing precisely one shoe, the missing shoe. Luna was overjoyed to finally have found it, but it was in no better shape than her others. Luna kicked the shoe off and said, “I see, so I have been wearing the shoe the entire…” Luna couldn’t hold her own laughter back as she joined in with her sister. It was probably one of the silliest things she had ever done, and to think she could have gone through the entire day not knowing that she was wearing only one shoe.

After the bout of joyous laughter was completed the two of them began dinner. While Celestia and Luna were treated to a meal of steamed vegetables and soup, Tiberius was given a bowl of strawberries to devour. Half way through the meal Celestia looked up at Luna and said, “you do realize, you forgot to raise the moon tonight.”

It was not a question, rather it was an accusation. Luna looked at her sister and defended, “I had a most terrible battle last night. What do you expect from me?”

Celestia’s face grew worried as she said, “I didn’t mean for it to come out that way, I do not blame you for forgetting. I saw the shape you were in this morning, you needed your rest.”

Luna wasn’t entirely convinced that Celestia hadn’t been judging her, but she was willing to look past this so long as it did not become habit once again. Luna let out a sigh and said, “I am sorry for misunderstanding. I do truly wish to be as good a princess as you, though it is hard sometimes…”

Celestia was quiet for a few moments before saying, “you are a good princess, Luna. You do not need to compare yourself with me. Why don’t you try and take it easy tonight, you still don’t look up to full health.”

Luna stood up from the table and asked, “are you, dearest sister, suggesting that I, Princess Luna, take a night off?”

Celestia nodded with a smile.

Luna replied, “I would never do such a thing, how could I take a night off? I am the Princess of the Night, not some…commoner.”

Celestia took another sip of her tea and said, “Luna, it’s not a terrible thing to take a break every now and again. Even I take vacations every once in a great while.”

Luna sat down and asked, “do you really?”

“Of course, for my last vacation I spent about two weeks in a nice little resort town. Cadence was still living in the castle at the time so I had her in charge until I returned,” Celestia explained.

Luna had never thought of her sister as being one to take vacations, or to shove responsibility onto other ponies. It had always been a point of pride for Luna that she had taken her role seriously. She felt like a train wreck though, and the idea of a short break was very tantalizing indeed.

“Ok…I shall…I shall take this break of yours. But what should I do?” Luna asked feeling a little ashamed for needed a rest.

“Why don’t you go and hang out with your friends?” Celestia offered.

Luna thought about it for a few minutes in silence. Celestia in the meantime yawned loudly and said, “forgive me Luna, but I have stayed awake far too long just so that I could see you wake up. I will see you in the morning, good night little sister.” Celestia then got up from the table and left the dining room.

Luna looked longingly into her soup thinking about what ponies she could even visit. There was Shining Armor of course, but if he was awake this late in the night, then he and Cadence were probably not wanting company. Twilight Sparkle and her friends were another choice, they could be awake and ready for some comradery. Finally Luna decided that she would go and hang out with one of her friends, and she knew just the pony to go and visit.

Luna stood up, and using her magic lifted Tiberius off the ground and placed him squarely on her back. Luna looked back at her companion and said, “we are going to Ponyville. Oh what an adventure this should be.” Luna then happily walked out of the room, her destination set, and her heart soaring. Tonight was going to be a fun night.

Chapter Two: Dreaming of Bunnies

LUNA AND TIBERIUS: THE NIGHTLY CRUSADE
Chapter Two: Dreaming of Bunnies
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Luna soared through the night sky enjoying the cool breeze rushing past her as she made her way to Ponyville. Tiberius was clinging to Luna’s back as she flew. The moon was bright tonight, casting its pale glow across the world beneath her. The stars however beautiful in the night sky, were a little dull tonight. A byproduct of Celestia having raised the moon tonight to be sure.

It was only a short flight down to Ponyville, especially when one was having fun anticipating all the entertaining things she would do with her friends. The question earlier had been who should she visit first, and the answer came to her quickly. There was one mare in particular that Luna enjoyed being around, a wonderful, kind, and rather cute mare.

Luna found the small cottage on the edge of the town. It was dark inside making Luna began to question whether the Fluttershy was home or not. She landed gently outside the front door and trotted up to it. Luna took a deep breath and knocked lightly.

She waited for nearly a full minute before knocking again a little louder. She was beginning to consider the fact that her dear friend might not be home tonight. It was disheartening as she turned to leave, and stopped suddenly as she heard a noise from the upstairs window.

Taking flight Luna flew up to the window which had been cracked open ever so slightly. She could hear a deep snoring sound from inside the room. Luna opened the window a little more and found the yellow pegasus lost in a deep sleep on the bed. Luna looked back up into the starry night sky and considered if maybe it was past Fluttershy’s bed time. This was only of minor concern as Luna could see the dream cloud hovering just above Fluttershy’s head.

Luna climbed into the window with deft ease, Tiberius began to make some clicking noises in disapproval. Luna got inside the dark room and looked back at him before whispering, “we have done this many times before, maybe not with Fluttershy…but ponies are used to us assisting them in their sleep.”

Tiberius gave her a disappointed look before looking away. Luna smiled and said, “oh come now, Tibbles. It should prove to be entertaining to see Fluttershy’s dreamscape. “

Tiberius made another clicking noise and Luna responded, “You do not expect us to wait outside while we enter the yellow one’s dreams, now do you? That would not even make sense.”

Tiberius finally rolled his eyes and relaxed himself on Luna’s back. Luna walked up quietly to the sleeping form of Fluttershy and whispered, “besides we are a princess, we are unhindered by boundaries.”

The dream cloud hovering above Fluttershy’s head was something that only Luna was able to see or interact with. As Princess of the Night, Luna had special abilities to see, interact with, and enter dreams. Most ponies did not realize that Luna actually entered their dreams with her physical body, and for when they would awaken during a dream, she had gotten good at disappearing into the shadows.

Luna reached a hoof out and poked the dream cloud. The fluffy substance jiggled a little at her touch, Luna giggled quietly as she leaned in and touched her horn to the cloud. This was going to be fun. Luna felt the dream cloud began tugging her and Tiberius into the dream world, and her heart raced as she wondered at what kinds of entertaining dreams were in store.

***

Luna found herself standing in the middle of Ponyville on a hot sunny day. She looked around herself excited to figure out what kind of dream this was. Everything seemed to be normal, and quiet. It was exactly like the night, only with the sun out. Luna let out a sigh realizing that she was going to need to find the dream if she wanted to have any fun.

Luna walked along the empty Ponyville streets looking for any signs of Fluttershy. Tiberius began tugging at Luna’s hair catching her attention. She looked back at him as he made some paw gestures before sitting back down peacefully. Luna’s face grew grave as she understood perfectly what he was saying.

Luna took off into a flight and said, “you are right, it is far too empty for this to be a normal day. Let us venture forth and find the source of everyponies disappearance.”

Luna flew over the dream version of Ponyville for a few minutes before finding a few villagers cornered in an ally way. The terrified looks on their faces told Luna that there was trouble in Ponyville. Luna landed next to them and asked, “dear citizens, what is the problem?”

One of the mare’s pointed a hoof to something behind Luna. Luna turned and found the source of the trouble. Three small bunnies stood in front of her, their bodies covered in black armor, and their eyes glowing red. Luna stood valiantly before them shouting, “you shall not have these ponies. I, Princess Luna, shall stop your villainy today.”

A slightly taller bunny hopped fearsomely to the front. His white coat was stained with dirt, and a black eye patch covered his left eye. This bunny was wearing a military hat, and held a carrot in his mouth like a cigar. He looked at Luna with his one good eye, studying her for any sign of weakness. The white bunny was clearly the leader.

“So you are the cause of the trouble here,” Luna proclaimed, already feeling triumphant in her victory over the small creatures.

The white bunny stuck a paw out, and motioned his hand downward. Luna noticed only then the mass of ninja bunnies that were hiding on the roof top. With the downward motion of his hand, they all leaped at Luna at once. Luna gulped and said, “oh…well then.”

***

After the fearsome battle Luna found herself in a new and rather embarrassing position. She was stuck inside of a large cage, being wheeled over towards the center of town. Tiberius was still with her. Luna had underestimated the combat prowess of the ninja bunnies. Now she realized that she had never even stood a chance.

Finally Luna was wheeled right up next to the statue of Celestia, and there the bunnies left her. The statue was looking down at her with an almost mocking smile telling her, ‘you lost a battle to a horde of bunny rabbits.’

Luna looked up at the statue and stated, “it was an unfair match, these rabbits have been trained…by ninja’s…and I think they are mutants…but hopefully they are not teenagers, because that would simply be weird.”

“Shh, it is okay my princess,” cooed a seductively alluring mare from Luna’s side.

Luna turned to face this mare and could not believe who she was looking at. Fluttershy stood before her, only she had red stripes dyed into her mane, red lipstick, and purple eye shadow. Fluttershy was also wearing a long red dress. Luna was not entirely opposed to this new look of Fluttershy’s.

“I know this may seem a little horrid of me, but you may not understand my purpose here,” Fluttershy said as she walked around Luna, looking her up and down. “You see, I have spent years training my bunnies, teaching them all the combat skills I could. Eventually they were good enough that I could begin my take over. Do not worry; the new Equestria will still need you and the other alicorns…just in a lesser extent than before.”

Luna opened her mouth and with her brain still unable to process exactly what was going on, only managed to say, “what?”

Fluttershy looked towards the sky and said, “me and my army of bunnies will take over Equestria. I will be loved, respected, and treated with dignity by all.”

Luna shook herself hard and said, “what about your friends? You are the element of kindness will they not need you still?”

Fluttershy looked a little confused as she processed this, then after a moment she looked flustered and said, “no, I will not stop. Everypony will love me. Every animal will love me. I will be your princess, kind, and caring. Nopony shall stop me.”

Luna looked at the mass of bunnies surrounding her cart, and then she looked at Fluttershy. Luna then looked down at her own hooves and said, “so…you are using these creatures to lead a revolt against Equestria. Hmm…this is a very intriguing dream.”

Fluttershy gave a mighty laugh before saying, “see, even you understand my desire. Yes this is a very intriguing…dream.”

Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide as she looked around herself and said, “oh…my.”

Luna couldn’t help but give a little laugh and say, “please, continue. I am curious as to how this plays out.”

Fluttershy looked back at Luna and said, “I…why am I doing this?”

Luna sighed and said, “you are most likely feeling pushed around by those closest to you, so you are dreaming of a way to take the power back. At least this is not a romantic dream, or else this could be very awkward.”

The world began fading and Luna realized that Fluttershy was beginning to wake up now. Sometimes when ponies realized they were dreaming they would wake up. It was a shame too, because Luna was enjoying this dream so far.

***

Luna found herself standing inside Fluttershy’s room, right next to her bed. The yellow pegasus was twisting in her sleep, Luna didn’t have enough time to squeeze through the window a second time. Luna saw the dark corners of the room and jumped into them. A unique perk of being the Princess of the Night, was that she could become one with the shadows around her, effectively becoming invisible.

Fluttershy awoke and sat up straight in her bed. She was sweating a little and looked around nervously before saying to herself, “calm down, Fluttershy…it was just a dream.”

Fluttershy looked over towards Luna and her eyes focused on Luna’s position. Luna’s heart began to race. It should not be possible for anypony to see her when she was surrounded by shadows. Fluttershy crawled over to the end of her bed and looked down at Luna’s hooves and said, “um…hi there…I’m Fluttershy, what’s your name?”

Luna looked down and saw Tiberius standing at the edge of Luna’s shadow looking directly at Luna. She had forgotten that Tiberius couldn’t join her in the shadows; he was after all only an animal. Tiberius looked at Fluttershy and made a few clicking noises garnering a smile from Fluttershy.

“Tiberius is a wonderful name, I love possums you know,” Fluttershy said.

Tiberius pointed his paw at Fluttershy’s door and began rubbing his belly with the other paw.

Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide and she covered her mouth and said, “oh no, there is a bunny downstairs and he’s hungry. Thank you for telling me, I’ll be right back up so that we can get to know each other better.”

Fluttershy flew towards her bedroom door, opened it, and left the room. Luna let out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding before saying, “come Tibbles. We shall make our escape with great haste. There is no need to stay here when we have are other friends to go and visit.”

Tiberius climbed up onto Luna’s back and together the two of them jumped out of Fluttershy’s window and soared into the night.

Chapter Three: Prank Until Dawn

LUNA AND TIBERIUS: THE NIGHTLY CRUSADE
Chapter Three: Prank Until Dawn
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Luna glided gently through the night sky enjoying the cool breeze against her fur. She was heading towards Twilight Sparkles house, after all Twilight was the closest friend that she had. She flew over a cluster of clouds on the way, and found something lying on top of one of them, something much to her delight. Luna flew closer to the cloud and saw a sky blue mare, with a rainbow colored mane sleeping soundly on the cloud. She was about to change that.

Luna looked at Tiberius who didn’t seem to have any opinion one way or the other. Luna evened herself out with the blue mare and with sudden force shouted in the Royal Canterlot voice, “AWAKEN, RAINBOW DASH!”

Rainbow Dash jumped a good five feet into the air before falling down face first into the cloud that she had been sleeping on. Rainbow Dash’s head got stuck inside the fluffy cloud upon landing and Luna couldn’t help but laughing at the sight as Rainbow pulled her head free.

Rainbow Dash shook her head violently for a few seconds before focusing on Luna. Rainbow Dash’s expression changed into surprise and she quickly said, “Princess Luna, what in Equestria are you doing here?”

“We have been given the night off, and wish to meet with all of our friends. We saw you sleeping on the cloud and decided it would prove entertaining to prank you. Much entertainment was indeed had at your expense,” Luna explained.

A grin grew on Rainbow Dash’s face as she said, “Even I can’t deny that, that was a good prank. You said you had the night off right?” Luna nodded and Rainbow Dash continued, “Well then, I think I know exactly what we should do tonight. Let’s start with Twilight Sparkle shall we.”

***

About a half hour later Luna and Rainbow Dash had found what they needed and went over to visit Twilight Sparkle. They snuck inside and now stood in front of Twilight’s bed as she slept peacefully, Spike the dragon was sleeping in a dog bed in the corner. Luna and Rainbow Dash spent very little time in preparation of their awesome prank.

Rainbow Dash swung a bucket towards the bed, water came out and covered Twilight Sparkle. Twilight gasped as the water hit her and she sat up in surprise. Twilight stared in horror for a few seconds as she saw the imposing form of Nightmare Moon at the foot of her bed. Twilight then said in a tiny whisper, “But, but we saved you. How could you become…like this again?”

Luna stood imposingly on her hind legs and called out, “You Twilight Sparkle shall become our servant, fetching candies from all of the foals of Ponyville so that we may eat in comfort.”

Twilight looked both confused and horrified for a long moment before glancing over at Rainbow Dash and then her expression hardened as she growled, “Rainbow Dash.”

Both Luna and Rainbow Dash broke out into hideous laughter before Twilight screamed, “I’M GOING TO GET YOU FOR THIS, THE BOTH OF YOU!”

Luna stood up still laughing and ran out of the bed room, Rainbow followed close behind her. The two ran up to the balcony, they heard the sounds of Twilight getting out of bed to chase after them heard behind them. Together they jumped off the balcony and flew off into the night sky.

They flew fast, and they flew far before finally slowing there pace down. Luna looked to Rainbow Dash and said, “That was great fun, Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh but, Princess Luna, we have just gotten started. For tonight, is going to be the night of pranks,” Rainbow dash said excitedly.

***

Not much later Princess Luna and Rainbow Dash were sneaking through a window on the second floor of the Carousel boutique. They were very quiet but judging from the loud sounds of somepony sleeping deeply they had no fear of waking up the next victim. Luna was actually surprised to hear the pristine white pony named Rarity snoring so loudly. One would never consider a pony as graceful as her to snore, Rarity would be upset if she found out somepony had heard her snoring for sure.

Luna instructed Rainbow Dash to hide in the corner of the room with Luna standing in front of her. This prank was something that Luna had tried on her sister once in the past but to no avail. Luna’s horn began glowing dimly for a brief second causing Rarity’s mane to glow for a brief second. Luna spread her wings and used her shadow magic to make her and Rainbow Dash blend into the shadows, becoming more or less invisible. Tiberius was sitting on Luna’s back this time so there was no chance of him being seen either.

Very quietly Luna whispered into Rarity’s dream, “Your hair.”

Rarity sat up in an instant and after taking off her blindfold and wiping away a trail of saliva from her mouth she began playing with her hair. Her mane looked as beautiful as ever, but Rarity could sense that something was wrong. She got off the bed and walked over to the vanity mirror in her room and turned on a small lamp. She examined her mane with great detail for a few seconds before stopping suddenly.

Rarity’s eyes shot wide as she used her magic to single out one gray hair from amongst the rest of her purple mane. Rarity stared silently in the mirror for a full thirty seconds before saying, “Gray hair… gray hair… I have a gray hair.” She then began screaming at the top of her lungs and running out of the bed room. Luna and Rainbow Dash had the hardest time keeping their laughter at bay as they quickly snuck out the window again.

When they had gotten a few houses away they could no longer hold their breaths and began laughing at the top of their lungs. The two had been laughing for a few minutes straight before Rainbow Dash finally managed to ask, “What, how, did you do that?”

Luna trying her best to calm down explained, “A simple cantrip to change the color of her mane. It was not a hard thing to do, but it was funny. Was it not?”

“That was awesome. I can’t believe she reacted like that over a single hair. Seriously, that was funny,” Rainbow Dash said.

“For a pony who values their beauty so highly having a single strand of gray in their mane will drive them insane. I agree that her reaction to this was very amusing,” Luna agreed.

“What do we do next,” Rainbow Dash asked.”

“Hmm, we should visit your two remaining friends,” Luna said.

“Oh man, I have the perfect prank for AJ. Follow me,” Rainbow Dash said before flying off at a good speed.

It was a little hard to catch up to the blue pegasus but Luna was determined to not lose sight of her friend, and even more so she was determined to not show weakness. Just as Luna caught up to Rainbow Dash she noticed that they were heading towards a large apple farm, and suddenly Luna began seeing the beginning of a fantastic prank at work.

***

Luna and Rainbow Dash looked into Applejack’s room from their perch on top of a cloud. Applejack’s room was silent save for the sound of Applejack snoring lightly. She lay on her side with her foreleg thrown around her pillow as she snuggled it tightly and drooled profusely all over it. This serine little picture was only broken when a loud thud filled the small room.

Applejack sat up instantly as she examined her surroundings. After a few seconds of seeing nothing her eyes began drooping again and she began leaning over drowsily. Another sudden thud filled the room causing Applejack to sit upright again. The sound was coming from the window, and that’s exactly what Applejack was staring at.

She got out of the bed slowly, and walked over to the window, nearly tripping on the way there. She looked out the window and stared at the orchard before her. Such a beautiful sight in the night’s pale white light. She continued staring for a few more seconds until something caught her attention.

She stared off into the dark ground below, her eyes growing more serious by the second. She suddenly looked surprised and said, “Ah, Tartarus no.”

Applejack quickly turned and ran to her bedroom door at a full gallop, swung open the door and continued into the hallway. It took only a few seconds but Applejack made her way outside and stopped dead in her tracks as she stared up at her once beautiful apple trees. Her face was frozen in shock as she stared up in complete disbelief.

The apple’s that had been growing from the trees now held a different color. A much brighter color then red, but not green, nor yellow. No these apples had now become orange. Applejack slowly reached up with a hoof, having to stand on her hind legs to grab at it, and plucked a single orange colored apple from the tree. She returned to her normal stance and stared horrified at the thing in her hooves.

After a few seconds she timidly took a bite of the apple and chewed very slowly before swallowing. She looked down at the fruit and a disgusted look took hold over her face. “Ah hate grapefruits,” She muttered before throwing the fruit at the ground.

Luna and Rainbow Dash still sitting on the cloud that was hanging lazily over the Apple family farm and watching the scene below were barely able to contain their laughter. Rainbow Dash was holding a rock in between her hooves and wore a manic grin as she tried her hardest to not laugh. Luna wasn’t in any better shape as she watched Applejack inspecting the trees below and cursing at them.

Rainbow Dash dropped the rock below and unable to contain her laughter any longer burst out into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, Luna followed suit. After a few seconds Applejack began screaming, “Rainbow Dash, Ah don’t know how ya did this, but when Ah catch you, Ah’m gonna string you up for this one.”

The two ponies stopped laughing and looked at each other in silence. A moment later they burst out into laughter again, they flapped their wings and went shooting off into the dark while ridding the cloud. The Apple family farm was growing distant behind them when Luna had one last idea for the tonight’s prank. “Let us go and visit the pink one,” She said with enthusiasm.

Rainbow Dash laughed before saying, “Sounds like fun.”

Tiberius simply stared at the two in disappointment.

“Nothing bad will happen, Tibbles. For tonight is a night of joyous pranking, and the pink one enjoys a wonderful prank more than any other pony we’ve met,” Luna said attempting to reassure the little possum.

Chapter Four: A Prank too Far

Luna and Tiberius: The Nightly Crusade
Chapter Four: A Prank too Far
Written by TheCrimsonDM

A sleeping pink pony lay in her oversized bed while cuddling with an assortment of stuffed animals. A small alligator lay at the foot of her bed sleeping with a stuffed panda bear held tightly in its toothless mouth. The room was dark save for the moonlight that shone through the balcony doors and illuminated the silhouettes of two ponies. A second later the silent silhouette were gone.

One of the stuffed teddy bears suddenly stood up of its own accord and looked at the sleeping pony. With an outstretched limb it tapped the pony’s cheek a few times in an attempt to get the pink ones attention. Slowly the pink pony opened her eyes and saw the once lifeless bear standing before her.

Instantly Pinkie Pie sat up out of her bed and all her sleepiness had vanished in an instant as she exclaimed, “MR.CUDDLES! You’re alive, I can’t believe it. How did this happen?”

The bear took a courteous bow and stood back to its full height standing at an imposing twelve inches. Pinkie Pie quickly clapped her hooves at the sight. The bear reached over and touched a stuffed piglet and a sudden aura of pink light covered the stuffed doll. After a moment the pig began to stand and move as well. The teddy bear simply shrugged and said in the most innocent child like voice, “I’m magic now.”

Pinkie grinned and said, “I don’t really need an explanation. Whatever made you come to life is like totally nice by my books.”

The bear began dancing around the bed while touching various stuffed animals. Each time a pink light would cover them and then they would start to move and dance as well. After only a few moments every single one of the stuffed animals were moving and dancing with new found life. Twelve different stuffed animals all stood around Pinkie Pie silently, and she couldn’t stop smiling at the sight of them all.

The animals all stood silently save for Mr. Cuddles who rubbed his belly and giggled like a foal. With a voice that could only have belonged to a small colt the bear began speaking again, “You see, Pinkie. We came to life because we all love you so much! That’s why we’re going to kill you. Because we love you isn’t that wonderful?”

Pinkie Pie’s smile faded a little and she gave a tiny laugh before saying, “That’s a silly joke.”

“Oh but I’m not joking,” The bear replied happily.

Pinkie’s smile disappeared and she said, “Okay so I lied. It’s not funny, actually it’s a little scary. So can you stop playing around?”

The bear’s head turned slowly and continued to twist all the way around its shoulders until it rotated a full 360 degrees and then it stopped and giggled again. “Come on everyone, let’s get, Pinkie!”

Suddenly all the stuffed animals jumped at once landing on top of the pink pony and she screamed. Pinkie Pie rolled off the bed grabbing at the stuffed animals and throwing them as she yanked them off of her. After getting them all off she scooted away into a corner and watched fearfully. The toys began getting up off the floor almost instantly and walking awkwardly toward the pink pony with a single purpose.

Pinkie Pie reached over and grabbed a pillow that was lying in the corner of her room with her teeth and began swatting the stuffed animals away. Her eyes were now wide and she looked frightened beyond belief at the toys coming at her now. The bear suddenly leapt into the air, jumping nearly six feet into the air before landing on top of Pinkie’s muzzle and staring into her bright blue eyes with his own button eyes. Slowly he raised a paw to his stitched mouth and whispered, “Shh… guess what.”

Pinkie Pie dropped the pillow and asked, “W-w-what?”

“You’ve,” the bear said while leaning in closer, “Been,” now the bear put a single paw onto her forehead and finished, “Pranked.”

Suddenly all the stuffed animals fell over and returned to their normal lifeless forms leaving Pinkie Pie to sit in the corner of her room looking very confused. With her eyes still full of fear, her body trembling slightly, and her nose twitching Pinkie just sat there in silence. Finally Rainbow Dash and Luna stepped out of the shadows of her closet laughing.

Pinkie Pie slowly took the teddy bear off of her muzzle and set it down gently. Pinkie also picked the pillow up with her mouth and threw it as hard as she could at the two ponies who just exited her closet. The pillow flew true and hit Rainbow Dash square in the muzzle and suddenly all the laughter stopped.

Pinkie Pie sat in her corner still trembling and giving a dirty look to the pair. Tiberius who was sitting on top of Luna’s back just shook his head slowly back and forth. Rainbow Dash looked taken aback and Luna suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Pinkie just sat in silence while glaring at them.

“Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said.

“No,” Pinkie Pie said sternly. “I don’t care who you think you are, or what you think you are doing. This was not funny!”

A deepening sense of guilt hit Luna and she found it very difficult to continue staring at the pink pony. Luna instead chose to look away and apologize, “We are sorry, pink one. We thought-“

“I don’t care what you thought,” Pinkie Pie interrupted. “This is my home, this is my room, and these are my stuffed animals. Nopony touches them, and nopony uses them to scare me! I need these things to go to sleep at night, and now I’m scared of them… I might never get to sleep again now.”

Luna closed her eyes shut tightly and Rainbow Dash took a few steps back away from the hurt Pinkie. Suddenly she realized that Tibbles had been right and that this was a terrible idea. Pranking ponies while they slept in their homes was an invasion of private space that might have horribly damaged her relationship with these ponies.

Slowly Luna opened up her tear filled eyes and said, “I’m sorry.”

Pinkie Pie crossed her hooves and frowned. The room was filled with silence for a few moments the only sound that could be heard was Pinkie making tiny coughing noises. Luna stared at her praying that Pinkie wasn’t coughing because of her actions, but something was off about Pinkie. Pinkie’s frown was breaking into a smile and her coughing was turning into some horrible sound that Luna couldn’t quite place. Suddenly Pinkie exploded into unbridled laughter that only grew worse as she continued laughing.

Pinkie Pie rolled over onto her back and clutched her stomach as she continued laughing, snorting, and even coughing a few times from how hard she was laughing. Luna and Rainbow Dash looked at each other worriedly and pretended to laugh along.

Finally Pinkie had calmed down just enough to explain, “I can’t believe that you actually thought that I’d be upset about this. I was just pretending to be upset. You fillies got me good so I had to get you back somehow.”

Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof into the floor and said, “You mean that you were just lying to us about being hurt? That’s not funny that’s… actually a pretty good prank.”

Luna was dumbfounded and could only say, “I cannot believe that we fell for that.”

It didn’t take long for all three of them to start laughing together. Rainbow Dash and Luna stayed for awhile after that and talked with Pinkie Pie at great length. They told her about how they had pranked everypony and how much fun they had that night. Finally though Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie fell asleep again, and Luna took that as her notice to leave. Before leaving though Luna made sure to put all of Pinkie’s stuffed animals back onto the bed and making sure they all looked neat.

***

Luna flew her way home after leaving Pinkie’s house. She had her fun and loved spending her night off with Tiberius. Going around and playing pranks on all of her friends with Rainbow Dash at her side proved to be entertaining indeed but the sun would be rising soon and that meant that she would be needing to sleep soon.

By the time she returned home the sun was just barely peaking over the horizon and Celestia had woken up. Celestia was eating breakfast, and Luna’s dinner was already sitting on the table waiting for her. Luna gratefully sat down at the table and began digging in without any restraint, the trip to and from Ponyville had taken a lot out of her after all.

Celestia just smiled and only after Luna had already finished half of her meal did Celestia speak. “So I’ve heard that you had an interesting night.”

Luna looked up and saw a sly look to Celestia’s eyes. Luna gulped and said, “Um… we have only been enjoying the night to the best of our abilities.”

“And playing practical jokes on Twilight and her friends was part of that?”

Luna looked away and said, “Well…”

Celestia’s grin grew larger. “It sounds like you had a lot of fun last night. Although the next time you wish to play any jokes on them, could you invite me? I’d love to see the reaction on Twilight’s face if I were to be the one behind such an event.”

Luna’s jaw nearly hit the table at Celestia’s words but after the initial shock wore off all she could do was smile. “Of course dearest sister, we would love it if you joined us in a night of joy and fun.”

THE END