Chapter 10-Dangerious Zones

Danger Zone:

It began on a day like any other day. The sun was shining; the birds were chirping, not a cloud in the sky……….

KABOOM!!

…………..and an explosion detonated at the golden oaks library. Truly this was an ordinary day in ponyville.

Twilight pulls herself out from behind a heavily reinforced table in the basement of her library, coughing up smoke. “Well that confirms Hypothesis number fourteen; thermal energy creates no visible effect on the strange stones. You okay back there Trixie?! You owe me five bits.”

The showmare pulls herself out from behind the table on the opposite side of the strange stone, her entire body covered in soot and dust from the resulting explosion. Even her trademark hat and cape are stained black. The mare coughs up a small cloud of black soot as she walks towards Twilight hoofing her the bits “despite your wordy and long winded explanations, Trixie still fails the grasp the importance of launching fireballs at magical artifacts. If one were to ask the great and powerful Trixie she would say that our time would better be spent looking for more of the Red Stones, or better yet ponies who have abused the Red stones to their own ends, not……. This.”

“Trixie, I had to give the others a day off, they threatened to strike if their demands weren’t met!”

Trixie scoffs. “Some friends they are, forcing their leader to surrender like a frightened fowl.” Dusting off her coat Trixie Strikes a confident pose. “Now if the Great and Powerful Trixie were in charge than she would throw any pony who would disobey her like that into the royal dungeon!”

“Trixie! That’s horrible!” Twilight gasps “Even though their healthcare demands were pretty biased those are our friends that you are talking about!”

“Humph perhaps your friends, but the Great and Powerful Trixie possesses no friends!”

Picking up a roll of newspaper Twilight promptly bops the showmare on the nose “Oh stop you. You know as well as I do it is that it would be completely unreasonable to expect our friends to work all the time. They have their own lives and jobs that need their attention. Rarity has that new fashion line that she’s sending over to the princess, Applejack has to take time off for zap apple harvest and spending some ‘quality time’ with her sister………”

………………

“Applejack? Are ya sure that this is the best way ta harvest Zap Apples?”

“Positive Bloom. Ah’ve harvested more Zap apples this way than in any other! It’s practically a family tradition.”

“But Applejack…. Not to dismiss a family tradition an all. And I know that Zap Apples have funny magic an all, but this seems a little……”

 “……Applebloom, quit yer whining and get in the trebuchet!”

……………..

“……….and Fluttershy had to cram for her final so she can become a full-fledged veterinarian. It’s a good thing that I was able to give her another chance at that, it’s amazing what a little word from the Princess Rep can do! Besides giving them all time off to tend to their jobs and relax will make them better able to handle the stresses of their jobs when they all get back to work.” Twilight levitates a clipboard into the chest of the blue mare as she turns back to the Strange stone on the pedestal “Alright Trixie prepare to record the results of experiment number fifteen, exposure to extreme cold.”

Trixie looks at the lavender mare and scoffs dropping the clipboard to the floor “The great and powerful Trixie does not need petty breaks as searching for stand abuses is her job! Besides how is almost being blown to smithereens by your crazy experiments a relaxing break? Why does Trixie have to help you?”

Twilight sighs as she continues to jot down more notes “I don’t have an assistant and I’m giving you free room and board so the least you could do is help me.”

Trixie narrows her eyes at the librarian “You destroyed my home.”

“And I’m providing you room, but if you want to keep being fed you have to start pulling your weight around here.” Twilight pulls herself away from the pedestal looking directly at Trixie “That means you, the Great and powerful Trixie helping manage the library, clean dishes and help me with my experiments.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is beyond such menial labor!” Trixie barks as she throws the clipboard to the ground in frustration. “Find some other banal servant to perform such meaningless tasks.”

“Help or I’m cutting cheese and crackers from the shopping list.”

Trixie hesitates for a second her mind balancing and comparing the pros and cons of helping Twilight sparkle with her life threatening experiments and cheesy crackers. “………..pass the note pad Sparkle.”

Yes indeed on this very day it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary would happen. However on this day three inconspicuous stand users would end up clashing over the title of ‘master pranker of ponyville.’

…………………..

“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was hilarious! Did you see Rarity’s face when she sniffed those flowers?! It’s like her body couldn’t decide whether or not to yell at us or collapse in a fit! That was priceless!” Dahs continues to roll on the ground (out of earshot from a certain ivory unicorn) laughing her face off along with her good friend Pinkie.

“He He he! Yeah Dashie! The great thing about a prank is that it makes lots of ponies happy, especially the ponies who pull it off and everypony appreciates it……. Eventually.” Pinkie looks out from behind the building at Carousel boutique “At least, I’m pretty sure that Rarity was kidding when she said that she would skin us alive if we got in the way of her completing her order……… “

“Of course she was kidding pinkie!” Dash wraps her arm around the pink mare causing her worry to melt away “You know Rarity. Always a drama queen. So Pinkie, what’s our status?”

With plenty of dramatic flair the party pony pulls a long list out from behind her back making a quick mark before continuing “Wwwweeeeeeellllllllllll……… we’ve already gotten all of our friends! Rarity just now with a sneezing bouquet, Applejack with coloring her apples, Twilight with invisible ink, Trixie with that banana cream pie, and Fluttershy….. Well Fluttershy is way too sensitive for pranks and she said that she would do some pretty nasty things to us if we got in the way of studying for her test so she’s off limits…… But we’ve gotten everypony else!  Yes sir Dashie I’d say that we’ve done a great job so far!” Pinkie says as she throws the list behind her creating a potent explosion.

Dash cracks her hooves as she hovers in the air on her back nonchalantly “Yep there’s no doubt about it. My pranking skills are truly the best in ponyville. A whole league above the rest, if only all the ponies in ponyville could finally realize how awesome my pranks really are they’d have to make a holiday after me Rainbow Dash and give me the respect that I deserve.”

Pinkie giggles “Well I don’t know about best Dashie, I think I know one pony who could give you a run for her money….”

“What?! No way?” Dash dismisses confidently “a better pranker than me? And I don’t know about them?! Who are they where do they live?! Come on Pinkie you’ve got to tell me. ”

“Oh I don’t know Dashie…..” Pinkie pulls a small string chord to her left causing a multitude of flashing signs to appear all around her. Every one of the neon arrows converging on Pinkie’s exact location “…… I know how about we play a guessing game? You guess who this mysterious pony could be and I’ll tell you if you’re right! All right! Ready…. GO!”

“…….. Is it you Pinkie?”

The parry mare throws a storm of confetti in the air “Hooray! You got it Dashie! And in one try! I knew that you would get it eventually!”

“……. Well of course you’re a great pranker Pinkie! Just not the best.” Dash puffs out her chest in pride “Your pranks lack style…. Moves…… and awesomeness. They just don’t have the impact that pranks made by yours truly have.”

“He He yeah your pranks always seem to make a splash, and I’m not just saying that because you like to use clouds and weather in your pranks cause that would be really predictable, just like all your pranks.” Pinkie giggles as she flaunts her own self-image “I on the other hoof, am the most crazy unpredictable and overall most surprising party pony in ponyville! I mean even Fluttershy could see your pranks coming a mile away and I’m not just saying that because her stand’s name is kind of thousand yard stare cause despite that name she doesn’t have that good of eyesight. I mean she’s not like eagle eyes but she’s not bad either. The point is that your pranks are way too easy to see through, that’s why I’m the best pranker. Sorry Dashie but you might as well throw in the towel and admit it.”

Both mares laugh good naturedly at the other mare’s comments for a few seconds each one enjoying the mirth of the moment. Yet in the space of a single second both mares stare each other muzzle to muzzle in the most intense and serious gaze each one can muster. They simply stand neither one making a move, waiting for the first one to make a mistake.

“So Pinkie…… it has come to this has it? After all these years you finally think that you can out prank the Dash, do you?”

“Yepers Dashie, it’s nothing personal it’s just a mare’s gota do what a mare’s gota do……”

“And you know that there is only one way to really settle this don’t you?”

“Yep there is only one true way to settle a rivalry as epic as this……” From behind her back the pink party mare pulls out a large caliber revolver, smiling crazily. With a single deft movement the mare flicks out three of the six bullets and spins the chamber before pressing the cold steel barrel to her temple. “RUSSIAN ROULETTE TO THE DEATH, ME FIRST!”

“Yeah… an epic prank……. WAIT PINKIE NO!!!”

However Dash is far too slow. Pinkie smiles grandly as she pulls the trigger the resounding explosion of the gun, resonating against the buildings with the sound of rolling thunder as the mare recoils from the force of the round. The pink mare falls to the ground, the gun clatters emptily against the sidewalk as the Rainbow mare stands aghast at the scene she has just witnessed.

“Pinkie……..” the rainbow mare stands teary eyed at the prone body of the mare before her “Why do you have a revolver that shoots confetti?”

Pinkie leaps up off the ground dusting the gobs of confetti off her face “Oh you mean my Party popper two thousand and one? Well I keep that as a spare for parties that are less than a shindig and slightly more than a quiet evening with friends. See I used to use my party cannon for all parties but then I learned from Rarity how to be a little more….” Pinkie pulls the Rainbow mare in whispering in her ear “….discrete.”

The pink mare stashes the revolver away “see that’s why I’m going to win that amazing prank contest that you were planning on having, cause I’m discreet and super unpredictable! Because nopony can see me coming!”

“Um yeah fine.” Dash looks at her pink friend with a mixture of admiration for such an unpredictable prank and fear that she might go overboard. “Just promise not to do that again, it might give some ponies the wrong idea or something. You know like you offing yourself or something……”

“Silly Dashie, that would be way too dark for this fan fic, at least until chapter nineteen!”

“Um……. Yeah just no more Russian roulette. That’s not my idea of a contest.”

“No kidding! Besides I’m no good at Russian Roulette. For some reason I always lose.”

“What I was thinking…..” Dahs hovers in the air with the rising tension. “Is a town wide pranking contest to see who the best prankster in ponyville! Whoever plays the biggest and most awesome prank on the other by the day’s end is dubbed the Master Pranker of All Ponyville, no take backs.”

“Yeah! I like that idea!” Pinkie claps her hooves “and the loser has the throw a party for the winner! That’ll be really awesome!”

Dahs face hooves “Um Pinkie. The objective of a punishment is to make a pony not want to lose.”

Pinkie tilts her head “I don’t get it.”

“……….If the loser has to throw a party, and you lose…… then you would have to throw me a party…..”

“……….. I still don’t get it.”

“Pinkie you love throwing parties………”

“Oh………… should I throw two parties?”

Dash face hooves “All right how about this! Whoever loses has to be the winner’s slave for three whole days! Does that sound like a good bet to you?”

Pinkie taps her chin for a few seconds humming to herself “Hhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuummmmmmhhhhhhh. Well when you put it that way, that sounds like a great idea!”

 “All right then It's agreed!” Rainbow spits a large lougie of spit on her hoof extending it to Pinkie. Pinkie responds in kind as the two mares double spit shake on their new arrangement.

“Perfect than it’s a best friends bet! And when I win…..” Pinkie’s mane slightly deflates taking on a slightly more wavy and flowing appearance rather than its normal bouncy tone. “…. You and I are going to spend a little more….. Intimate time together…… and play some really fun games.” The pink mare says in her most sultry voice.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu……… Pinkie what are you…….” The blue mare tries to back away from her crazy friend as her face turns a dark crimson.

“Don’t worry Dashie. I promise that I’ll be gentle…….. and merciful……..” The pink mare’s mane suddenly springs to its original bounciness again “When I beat you in tick tack toe twenty to zero! HA! Now if you excuse me I’ll have to get planning my prank to make you my slave! See you later!” The Rainbow mare con only stand looking in stunned horror as the pink mare bounces off singing a song about the joys of jellybeans.

After a few minutes Dash breathes out a sigh of relief satisfied that pinkie is finally out of earshot. “Whew that Pinkie Pie…….. alright time to get planning my own prank!” the Rainbow mare prepares to take off into the wild blue yonder only to take one longing glance at the direction that Pinkie took off in. “then again….. If I let pinkie win……”

The blue mare shakes her head “Snap out of it Dash! This is about your pride as a pranker! Not pinkie’s… weirdness.” The blue mare takes off into the sky thinking up the perfect prank to get pinkie with “Besides, if I win then Pinkie has to do what I say no way I can pass that up!”

…………………….

“Now THIS is the absolute best prank of all time!” The Rainbow mare lifts the last of her contraption onto the roof of sugarcube corner, the residence of one Pink Party pony. The mare snickers to herself as she raises a large empty dumpster to the roof of the gingerbread building placing it gently over the rear door of sugarcube corner. Satisfied with her placement of the large container she quickly swoops around the vicinity with her lightning fast speed grabbing several clouds and condensing them into a large dark storm cloud. Placing the cloud over the open portion of the dumpster Rainbow Dash gives the cloud a solid buck filling the empty dumpster with gallons and gallons of water. Dash propping the dumpster at a slight angle on the roof and propping it up with a sturdy pole the mare ties a long string to it and files down to the door with the other end. On quick half knot later the other end of the string is tied tightly to the door handle. Rainbow Dash snickers as she plucks the string sending a pleasing vibration through the air.

Rainbow Dash smiles gladly at her expert prank “Heh! This is sure to ‘wash away’ whatever pinkie’s prank is for me! She thinks water is a boring idea for a prank, well this is sure to blow her out of the water!” Rainbow Dash looks at the door visualizing the prank in action. “I’ll tell her I have a surprise waiting for her out front and since this is unpredictable pinkie she’ll rush out the back door! And when she does…….”

“Hi Dash!”

“GWAH!” Dash leaps into the air in fright before quickly turning around to face the sound of the voice. “Pinkie how did you….” Dash is cut off as she sees that it is not Pinkie that has surprised her from behind but the town Mail Mare, Derpy hooves. The Grey Pegasus mare with her blond mane possessed unique cutie mark of an assortment of bubbles that represents her free spirit and inner grace. Derpy was the town’s mail mare and delivery mare for three years running despite conditions that would normally get her fired in a larger city. The wall eyed Pegasus was known for several things around ponyville, her cross-eyed ‘condition’ that no pony in town would dare discuss in polite company, her ill-timed clumsiness, and her legendary love of muffins. However despite all her eccentrics the Pegasus’ adorable nature and kind hearted attitude as well as her sincere love for her daughter Dinky quickly endeared her to the vast majority of ponyville.

Few ponies could stay angry with her for long, not even Dash. However the fact that she had almost made her pull her trap early certainly didn’t put the speedster in a good mood. “Geese Derpy! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

The Pegasus looks at dash apologetically “Sorry Dash. I just wanted to know what the weather would be like today!” The Pegasus walks over to the string attached to the door plucking it musically “Ooooo! Dash are you turning the Cake’s building into a musical instrument?”

The rainbow mare quickly swats the grey Pegasus’s hoof away “Be Careful with that Derpy!” The quick swat earns Dash another reward for jerky behavior as Derpy begins to tear up a little “Oh gosh. Look Derpy I’m sorry I snapped at you and all it’s just me and Pinkie are in the middle of a prank war and…..”

“A prank war?!” Derpy’s sorrows are immediately forgotten “that sounds great! Well as long as it’s safe……” the pegasus ears swivel downwards “No pony’s going to be hurt right?”

Dash eyes roll “No Derpy No pony is going to get hurt, just look.” Dash points up at the dumpster and the Grey Pegasus follows her gaze “See when Pinkie opens the door it’ll pull the string and she’ll get all wet. It’s all in good fun.” Dash suddenly brightens as she thinks up a clever idea “In fact how would you like to help me out here?”

Derpy shuffles with uncertainty in her hooves “oh I don’t know Dash I only came down to ask about the weather, and grab a quick bite.  I really should get back to my route.”

“I’ll owe you two muffins of your choice! Think of it as an apology for my outburst earlier!” Dash wraps her hoof around the grey mare “So what do you say Derpy?”

“Well…….” The grey mare thinks it over “When you put it that way….. and since it’s all in good fun then why not!”

“Great! I knew I could count on you!” Dash flutters over to the bush a slight distance from the back door “All right now since the trap is set all you have to do is tell Pinkie that I’m waiting for her outside from the front door. Pinkie will suspect a trap and come through the back door and when she gets all wet I’ll be able to jump out and surprise her!”

Derpy Blinks “that’s all?”

Dash nods “That’s all and in return I’ll get you two muffins of your choice. In the meantime I’ll be hiding behind that bush to jump out and surprise her.” With an acrobatic leap the rainbow mare jumps behind Derpy hiding in the dense foliage right next to the door

Derpy looks back at the rainbow mare who obscures herself in the bush once more before walking towards the front door. As the mail mare walks out of sight Dash snickers in joyful anticipation of her prank succeeding. The mare watches through the back window and waits as she begins to hear a sound similar to a herd of buffalo stampeding down the stairs. ‘heh, the unpredictable Pinkie’ Dash thinks to herself ‘Won’t Pinkie be surprised when she finds out that I anticipated her so easily…. Then she’ll have to admit that I’m the best...’

Yet in the excitement of the moment something truly unpredictable does happen. Unfortunately for dash the roof she placed the dumpster on was uneven and as if by divine intention or simple bad luck the jostling of Pinkie running down the stairs was enough to dislodge the dumpster proper causing it to skid down the side of the roof. And the dumpster without its sole support slides off the roof causing the entire crate of water to fall off the roof directly over a certain group of bushes. Seeing the string snap right before her eyes Dash barely has time to look up as she sees the entire crate of water falling right on top of her. Her eyes grow wide as the last thought she that courses through her stunned brain is that it would have been really funny if pulled out a small umbrella right now.

With a crash loud enough to wake the dead the entire dumpster full of water falls on top of the blue mare top down drowning the speedster in a torrent of her own water biased trap. Half thankful that the dumpster proper didn’t land on her and crush her flat the mare flails her arms about in the darkness as the dumpster falls over her top first, trapping her like a bug under a cup. The mare sputters and coughs erratically as the water permeates every inch of her body an entire rainstorm released in the space of a single second. As the water settles the waterlogged Rainbow mare lifts the top of the dumpster off her body, wet soggy and defeated by her own trap. Dash spurts out a jet of water from between her teeth as she pulls the dumpster off of her head. “Ugh washed out by my own prank. Could this get any worse…..”

As if sensing her dramatic irony the back door flies open revealing a grinning Pinkie pie “….. and since she’s probably waiting for me at the front door….. Oh Hi Dashie! Fancy meeting you here! Why are you so wet? Did you decide to take another cold shower, and in the middle of Ponyville?”

“NO! I mean…. Ummmmm. Yes I was….. taking a shower…….” The Rainbow mare lies read faced.

At this Pinkie rolls on the ground laughing “Silly Dashie! You can’t fool me! I saw you planning that old super large water bucket over the door a mile away thanks to my good old pinkie sense! I knew you were trying to prank me the moment I came down the stairs!”

Pulling out a bath cap and a scrub brush from behind her back Pinkie equips the rainbow mare “But I got to admit, I totally did not see that coming! I mean pranking yourself is super priceless and original! If you were planning to prank yourself you would have totally won! But now I’ve got to run and plan my prank for my special little target, namely you! So if you want to beat me you’ve got to be more unpredictable than that!” leaving Dash to stew in her own utter embarrassment and shame the pink mare bounces off into the distance humming the same cheerful song that she always does.

………………….

“HuuuumHummmhMummh! HuuuumHummmhMummh! HuuuumHummmhMummh! LALA-LALA-LA!!!”

“Now then Pinkie you old party pony!” the pink party mare says to herself as she walks around ponyville proper taking in the sounds and sight of happy ponies around her. “What would be the best prank to get my good friend Dashie with? It was sure a surprise that her own prank backfired on her but Dashie won’t let that keep her down! After all a prank war of THIS magnitude calls for extreme measures: PINKIE PIE STYLE!” Sitting on her rump the mare applies all her Pinkie Brain as she muses to herself on the best possible prank that she can pull to win her the title of Best Pony Prankster or something like that, as well as the right to have Dashie do whatever she desires.

Unable to suppress her imagination, Pinkie Drools as she thinks of all the possible things that she can have Dash do for her, like make her a cake, or have her take her shift at the cake’s bakery or something with chocolate icing.

“Now let’s see here little Brain, what can I do with…..” the mare pulls her patented Party cannon out from behind her back “…A party Cannon…” she pulls out each item in turn “, a snorkel and fins, three rubber chickens four cans of brightly colored paints, a bowling ball and a bottle of instant fresh water. Humhhhhhhhhhh…….. AH HA! I know what to do!”

Picking up the bottle of instant fresh water Pinkie carefully places the bottle on a nearby unoccupied park table writing a quick barely legible tag to place on the bottle. The tag which reads ‘Drink me Dashie’ causes the mare to snicker to herself, sure that Dash won’t be able to resist such a complimentary drink. Then judging the trajectory with both her hooves pointed outwards Pinkie judges the perfect angle for a shot, a nearby alley that is conveniently hidden from view. Pinkie laughs as she zips over to the alley and pulls out her party cannon positioning it so that it is perfectly aimed at where the bottle of water is. Pulling out several cans of paint Pinkie pours the semi-viscous liquid down the barrel laughing all the while “HE He he! What a great idea Pinkie……… He he!”

“What’s a great Idea Pinkie?”

Pinkie pulls her head up to see a familiar mail mare standing on the tip of her cannon “OH! Hey Derpy! What’s happening? What’s up? Well other than you of course Pegisi are always up! Well except when they land on the ground, but then they can always go up!”

Derpy nods at the sage advice “that is so True Pinkie! But I was really wondering what is up with you? Why are you pouring paint into a cannon?”

“Well that’s a funny story Derpy! Have you heard about me and Dash’s prank war?”

The Mailmare tries to hide her surprise “Um…. Well I might have heard of it….”

“Great!” Punkie throws the empty can of paint to the side “than that saves me a long explanation! And I hate long explanations! You see this is my little prank for Dashie. When she stops to sample the water on that table there.” Pinkie points to the table off in the distance as she walks around the cannon to the back “then I’ll pull the trigger her and launch a storm of polka dotted paint right at her! You see it’s really funny because she just took a shower and got wet, so after this prank she’ll have to take ANOTHER shower!”

“Wowie that sounds a lot better than Dash’s prank!” The grey mailmare remarks as she turns around on the barrel of the cannon to face pinkie “But um, I’m confused, how do you get paint to make polka dots?”

“That’s easy you just buy polka dotted paint!”

“Oh wow you know how to get everything Pinkie!”

“Yeah I’ll say Derpy! Um can I ask you something Derpy old pal?”

The mailmare blinks “Yes Pinkie what is it?”

“Um well how to put this. You’re sort of standing on my party cannon and I’m trying to aim it, so……”

“Oh OH! I’m sorry Pinkie I didn’t want to get in your way or anything!” the mailmare takes to the air allowing Pinkie to once again focus on the aiming module.

“He He! That’s okay Derpy I know you didn’t mean it!” Pinkie is about to finish her preparations when she pulls a magnificent double take “Say want to stay and watch? Its’ going to be really good!”

Derpy’s normal cheerful attitude dissipates instantly into an aura of fear and uncertainty “Um…. Well I’m not sure Pinkie…… I mean I know this prank is going to be really cool and all. But I think I’ve had enough of pranks for a while…….”

Noticing the immediate change in Derpy’s behavior Pinkie beams even more to cheer her up. “Hey that’s okay! I wouldn’t want you to stay if it made you unhappy! You go on and have a happy day delivering mail!”

Derpy smiles and turns to fly away “Thanks Pinkie! You always know what to say to make me feel better! Oh by the way!” the grey mailmare reaches into her sack pulling out a brown wrapped package “this is for you! I was going to drop it off at your room in sugarcube corner……. But I forgot.”

With absolutely zero grace and no concern for the condition of the package the mare rips the parcel to shreds revealing a large orange book. Pinkie gasps dramatically “find the 22nd edition of 1001 puns! Thanks Derpy I’ve been waiting on this for four weeks! Get it!”

Pinkie stuffs the book in her mane before turning back to the mailmare “Thanks for delivering it in person Derpy! You’re always so considerate!”

Derpy surprised to be complimented for forgetting a delivery rubs the back of her neck “He he! Yeah just doing my job! He he.” Suddenly the grey mare gets very serious “say Pinkie…….”

“Yes Derpy?” Pinkie asks as if completely oblivious to Derpy’s sudden change of mood.

“If there were something really bothering me………” the grey mailmare taps her hooves together shyly.

“Humh?” Pinkie yells over the loud clanking of her cannon as she adjusts the accuracy and aiming. “You’ll have to speak up there Derpy I can’t hear you!”

Derpy looks at Pinkie deeply as if she has a load on her chest that she has to get off, a weight that is crushing her. Finally after what seems like minutes the grey mailmare shakes her head “……….Never mind it’s not anything that you can help me with anyways! Have a nice day.” And with that the grey mailmare flies off leaving the pink mare to focus again on her prank.

“Boy that Derpy…..” Pinkie remarks “always so mysterious and…… Hunh?” Pinkie stops her preparations of her cannon instantly looking down the barrel of her cannon “That’s strange it looked like something landed on the barrel….. Maybe it was one of Derpy’s feathers?” the pink mare turns back to the sky “HEY DERPY! YOU DROPPED SOMETHING!”

Seeing as how the grey mare is gone and out of earshot Pinkie shrugs and walks around the barrel of the cannon pulling it down to her eye level as she inspects the barrel for any damage or sign of the mysterious object. “Good….. now let’s see what the little problem I………” the party mare looks down the barrel just in time to see it erupt in her face sending her flying as the explosive propelled paint sends her tumbling hooves over head out of the alley and into a cheap park table. Her head spinning and her body covered in thick creamy polka dot paint the not-pink party mare picks herself up shakily on her hooves standing up as a familiar pony lands besides her.

“Hey Pinkie! Look some pony’s handing out free bottles of my favorite water! And it even has my name on it! Sweet!” the mare guzzles the entire bottle down in a second throwing the bottle into a nearby recycling bin. “Ugh Pinkie what happened to you? Is that your new Fashion statement? I may not be a Rarity but I can easily tell you that polka dots aint your color Pinkie.”

“Well I wasn’t trying to give myself polka dots!” Pinkie crosses her arms grumpily “And I didn’t mean to prank myself! My prank just happened to backfire on me!” Pinkie suddenly jumps to her hooves staring Dash down “…….. As if somepony was trying to sabotage me! Somepony like you!”

“What? ME?!” Dash Points her hooves to her chest

“Yes you! I bet it was all part of your big plan! You knew that you couldn’t beat my surprising pranks so you rigged my Cannon to blow up in my face early and cover me in polka dots! Now look me!” Pinkie tries to brush off the globs of paint congealing on her coat. “I’m all sticky and wet now! I’m so embarrassed…….”

“UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH………..” Rainbow’s brain stalls as she tries vainly to keep from thinking certain thoughts all while trying to suppress a monstrous blush consuming most of her face.

“And it's’ all your fault Dashie!” Pinkie pouts again her arms crossing sloppily as the flecks of the paint splash on Dash’s coat. “You think I’m fooled well I’m not! That wasn’t a very good prank anyways it was just mean!”

Dash sighs as she tries to clear the blush from her face “Alright, first I never touched your cannon! And second you are the one who sabotaged me! You just knew that your running down the stairs would cause my trap to work against me, admit it!”

“Shows what you know.” Pinkie pie sticks her tongue out at the rainbow mare wincing as she gets a dollop of paint on her tongue. “I blame your shoddy construction. It’s not my fault that your own trap fell apart on you!”

“What! Alright this has gone on long enough Pinkie. Dash lands a hoof away from Pinkie “Just admit that you’re the one who sabotaged my prank and we can get on with this!”

“Nut-uh!” Pinkie presses back against Dash muzzle to muzzle “You apologize for sabotaging my prank! Cause I know for a fact that I didn’t sabotage yours!”

“Oh really? Is that a fact!?” Dash asks as sarcastically as possible.

“Yes Dash, it’s a fact!”

 “Well I know that I didn’t prank you! So who was it?”

“Oh have both of you been pranked by the master pranker of ponyville too?” Both mares turn suddenly to see a brown colored earth stallion with a brown well-trimmed mane and cutie mark of a cup of water. The stallion gulps nervously in the face of the two mare’s intense gazes “that is…. If you were pranked by the master pranker, you wouldn’t be the only one. He’s gotten almost every pony in ponyville. He got me twice since last week…. Um am I saying too much?”

Both mare blink at each other simultaneously before turning towards Swift Service again. “Woa Woa. Back up there…..” Dash says “what are you talking about the master pranker of ponyville? Cause the only master pranker in ponyville is yours truly!”

“Oh well, since you were arguing like that I thought you already knew….” Swift Service clears his throat and signals the two mares to sit down. Once the two mares sit Swift Service resumes his tale with the same level headedness that he began with, that is to say not a lot “Okay, basically ever since about two or maybe three weeks ago, I can’t really remember when exactly….. anyways ever since about two and a half weeks ago a mysterious pranker has been pranking ponies indiscriminately. That means the pranker pranks any pony that he can and he never leaves a calling card or a hoof print or anything that could give us a clue of who he is! True no pony’s been hurt by his pranks, but the pranks always strike at the most inconvenient times and no pony has no clue who is doing it so its’ really frustrating!”

The now polka dotted mare pulls out a detective hat and a bubble pipe, blowing bubbles in deep thought as she listens to the stallion’s tale of woe. “Of course!” Pinkie pounds her hooves together in a downward motion “we must have been counter pranked by the legendary pranker! He’s heard about our completion and wants us to know that there is no better pranker in ponyville than him! It’s the perfect crime……”

Dash blinks in surprise that for once Pinkie is the one making sense of the situation. “Yeah….. Yeah! That makes total sense! He must be intimidated by my superior skills so he’s trying to get the drop on us! Well he had better think again if he thinks that he can make a fool of the two of us and get away with it!”

The rainbow mare turns heroically to the stallion “Don’t worry Swift Service, I personally promise as the most awesome pony in ponyville to find the master pranker and prank them back hard!”

“And I second that emotion! We both have to work together to find this mare, stallion, or whatever it is!” Pinkie nods her head “I love a good prank as much as the next pony but is sounds like this prankster is going too far! I mean Polka Dots!? What kind of pony uses Polka dots!”

Swift Service breathes an immense sigh of relief as Dash and Pinkie shake hooves each one agreeing to put aside their differences for a common cause. “Then it’s settled!” Dash exclaims as she lets go of Pinkie’s hoof. “But just how does a pony go about catching a mysterious super pranker?”

“Well…….” Pinkie remembers “My great uncle Trout Line taught me that if you want to catch the right prey than there is only one thing that you really need!”

Dash raises an eyebrow “And that is?”

“Easy!” Pinkie points towards Swift Service   “The right bait…….”

………………………….

Thus it came to pass that Swift Service the pony became living bait for the mysterious prankster shuffling nervously outside his own house with a large kick me sign on his back and wearing a pair of united shoes. Truly there could not be a better example of a sitting Duck than Swift Service the pony. Thus it was to the great surprise of Both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash that it was taking so long for the mysterious prankster to find their bait. In the depths of their super-secret mobile fortress that looked conveniently like a bush the two mares watched their bait known as Swift Service waiting for their chance to strike back at their nemesis.

“URGH!”

“Dash be quiet! We need to be quiet if we want this to be a surprise!” Pinkie whispers harshly.

“But Piiiiiinnnnnkkkkkkkiiiiiieeeeeee!” Dash moans “it’s Sooooooooooo Boring!”

“Well just think of funny thoughts!” Pinkie continues to stare at Swift Service through her pair of binoculars “like kumquats and cheri-changas! Or kumquat flavored Chimi-Cheri-Changas! That always helps me pass the time!” Dash groans once again as Pinkie watches the increasingly more terrified Swift Service stand outside his house waiting for disaster. “Wow is Swift Service brave or what! I wonder why he agreed to play pretend and be our bait so easily?”

“Oh that” Dash snaps a stray stick in her hooves “Yeah I just had to promise him a saucy picture of Applejack, and he agreed to do it easy. I mean I would have promised him two but he agreed in less than ten seconds…….”

Dash lifts her gaze to see Pinkie pie looking back at her with a judgmental gaze. “It’s not like I was going to actually give him one! I mean it’s not like I have one!”

Pinkie bops Dash on the head “Normally I would be more sad at the fact that you decided to lie to Swift Service. However I’ll make it up to him later. His birthday is in a week after all and I have a great present for him! A five layered fudge cake!”

“Whatever, as long as he’s off my back.” Dash pears out of the bush looking at Swift Service   “are you sure that this is tempting enough? Do you think we should have made him more of a target, or do you think that would have been too suspicious?”

“Relax Dashie!” Pinkie pats Dash on the head much to the bleu mare’s discomfort “no real prankster could possibly pass up a good kick me sign! All we have to do is watch and wait so that we can take this mysterious prankster by…..”

“SURPRISE!”

Both mares flail backwards as a familiar grey mailmare sticks her neck into the bush “Hi ya Guys? Are you still pranking each other?”

Pinkie blinks at the mail mare “Wow Derpy, are you related to my aunt Surprise? Cause you’re really surprising!”

 “No sorry Pinkie, I don’t know your aunt Surprise, she sounds really nice though.” Derpy hovers in the air as she gestures over towards Swift Service. “I’m just here to deliver Swift Service’s mail and I saw you two hiding in a bush so I thought that I would tell you both hi!”

The mail mare stops in mid-sentence as she sees Swift Service shuffling his hooves nervously. “Ummmmmmm why is Swift Service  dancing like that? And why is he wearing shoes?”

“Derpy….” Dash growls at the Grey mail mare

“OH I almost forgot!” The grey mail mare reaches into her saddlebags and pulls out a medium sized box that radiates heat, the mare smiles as though she is holding a chest of gold as she flips open the lid of the box. “You both looked so down cause your pranks backfired on you guys so I got you a pick me up!”

Pinkie grins as she quickly picks up a muffin and puts the entire pastry in her mouth in one bite. “Trhaks Berpy! Yer murfins afre the befts!” the mare says while spewing crumbs all over the ground.

Dash is more hesitant looking over the muffins for a few moments before finally grabbing one and taking a cautionary bite of it. Dash’s eyes light up immediately as she quickly finishes the rest of the muffin. “Yeah thanks Derpy. It’s good that something is finally going our way today. But if you don’t mind we are doing something really important that requires our full attention so if you could help us stay on the down low…..”

Derpy snaps into a quick salute “You don’t need to say another word! I’ll get back to my job! By the way…..“ Derpy looks at various items lying in the bush”…..what are you doing?”

Pinkie grins as she holds up a pair of binoculars “That’s easy! We’re setting a trap to catch the mysterious prankster that’s playing all these mean pranks on ponyville! Want to help?”

“Pinkie!” Dash clops her hoof over the party pony’s mouth “Never mind that Derpy. You have a job to do right? So just leave this to us!”

Derpy looks at the two ponies with a strange look in her eyes, one might say it were a mixture of sorrow, fear and shame. “O-Okay. I’ll just…….. Deliver Swift Service’s mail now. Bye you guys.” The grey mare turns tail and flies off towards the house in the distance.

Satisfied that the mailmare is out of earshot the rainbow mare removes her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth “Pinkie? What were you thinking?”

“Hunh?” Pinkie cocks her head “well I thought that I was thinking of clouds that rain sprinkles? It least I think that I thought that thought. What did you think?”

Dash groans as a familiar grey mail mare greets Swift Service off in the distance. “I mean about asking Derpy to join our secret mission! I mean she’s nice and all but she can be a bit…….. Well, I just think that she would get in the way of our chance to nab the legendary prankster.”

Pinkie taps her chin as she considers Dash’s point “Well she did think that muffins were a kind of cupcake when she first came to ponyville.”

Dash nods as the grey mailmare puts the mail in the mailbox and waves to Swift Service flying off into the distance “that’s exactly it. She’s nice and all but she always gets in the way. If you ask me I think that she’s a few muffins short of a bushel.”

Pinkie gasps heavily as she punches Rainbow in the shoulder hard. “Dashie! How dare you! You can’t just say mean things like that behind a pony’s back! And especially about Derpy!”

Pinkie crosses her hooves and pouts “She’s a really kind mare with a wonderful daughter! Why she even went out of her way to give me a book that I had been waiting months on while I was in the middle of my prank.”

“Woah Woah Pinkie!” Dash waves her hooves cautionary “I wasn’t saying she’s not smart or something, it’s just that she has a bit of trouble when it comes to common sense, and we all struggle with that. I mean when I was in the middle of my prank she almost triggered my trap early. Seriously what kind of Mare does that?”

Off in the distance Swift Service reaches into the mailbox to retrieve his mail only to find his hoof stuck in the confines of the box, quite possibly due to the large shoes he is wearing. Pinkie looks at the ground as she considerers Dash’s point “Well she may be a bit, Derpy. But she’s a wonderful mare who’s always there when you need her and you shouldn’t……” Suddenly Pinkie’s mane deflates instantly as a horrible thought comes to mind. “Um, Dashie?”

“I know I know pinkie she’s a good pony and all but that doesn’t excuse her, MUuummmph!” Dash is stopped in mid rant by pinkie’s hoof.

“Dash….” Pinkie gulps as the stallion in the background pulls more on the box to try and free his hoof. “When did you say Derpy appeared?”

Pinkie removes her hoof allowing Dash to speak. The rainbow mare coughs “Like she appeared just before my prank went south and it backfired on me why?”

Pinkie looks into Dash’s eyes her normal puffy mane beginning to return along with a burning realization “Because the same thing happened to me Dashie. Think about it.” Pinkie says in her most serious voice “We’re looking for a pony that has been as the scene of our pranks and could prank all of ponyville. And Derpy is a mail mare, she goes everywhere in ponyville!”

Swift Service continues pull on the mailbox in attempt to free his hoof bending the pole like a bow, and building up all the potential energy of a catapult. “What?” Dash looks at her friend surprised “Well it is suspicious that she was at the scene of our pranks, but Pinkie this is Derpy we’re talking about! There’s no way…..”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Both mares watch just in time as Swift Service is sent flying off into the distance from the released force of his mailbox. They both gape at the trajectory of the stallion as she crashes into a nearby hay roof crashing through it with a loud thump. Both mares stare mouths open as both their minds reach the same concussion at the same time.

“Derpy’s the master pranker.” Dash says dramatically

“M-humh” Pinkie agrees

With all the speed that their four hooves can muster the two ponies leap out of the bush hot on the train of the wall eyed mailmare.

…………………..

“…… And you’re sure that she went this way?!” Dash’s gaze narrows at the direction Pinkie pointed her in.

“Absolutely positively! My pinkie sense is never wrong. Well except on April Fool’s day, and even then it is sometimes right!” Pinkie points towards a small alley a short distance from Carousel boutique, away from any prying pony eyes.

“My pinkie sense said she went down that alley. Besides….” The pink mare pulls out a long list from behind her back. “…….. According to the town postal guide this is Derpy’s corporately designated break spot. She is corporately required to take a midday snack break here from four thirty to five.”

Ignoring Pinkie’s usual jests Dash looks at the entryway to the alley knowing that the pony that made a fool of her is just around the corner. “Good. Now maybe we can finally get some answers from a certain somepony. You go left Pinkie and I’ll take the right side” In a prismatic flash the mare flies around the corner landing with enough force to crack the ground beneath her hooves. Sure enough sitting on a small bench enjoying a bite of muffin and a beaker of Apple juice is none other than Derpy hooves.

Raising her lopsided eyes to the sound of the chasing hooves Derpy spies Dash and waves cheerfully towards her friend “Well Hey Dash! What’s going……” Now Derpy may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer like Dash said, but she was far from stupid. In fact her natural empathy meant that she was far more sensitive towards the moods and emotions of ponies than she let on. And from the mannerisms that Dash was giving off, namely her slightly clenched jaw her spread posture and her burning magenta eyes that Dash wasn’t there to talk. “…… um Dash? What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Dash chuckles “I’ll tell you what’s wrong, namely you!”

“What?” Derpy backpedals gasping “M-M-Me-e-e?”

“Yes You!” Dash takes a step forward “I know your secret, You’re the mysterious prankster that’s making a fool of everypony including me and Pinkie!”

The Grey mare’s legs begin to shake as a look of fear fills her eyes “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” the mare turns around as if to retreat however she finds that her other way out is cut off by a familiar Pink Party mare.

“Oh trying to play dumb are we?” Dash rolls her eyes sarcastically “well I know for a fact that you have been sabotaging us all day! What was being nice to us all some kind of game? Do you like making fools of other ponies?”

“Derpy….” Pinkie looks sad eyed at the mail mare before her “Is-is it true? Were you just pretending to be nice to us, to me? Just for a prank?”

“NO Pinkie!” Derpy actually begins to cry a little at Pinkie’s allegations “No I didn’t mean to make you sad. It’s just….” The mare clenches her eyes shut suppressing her tears “…… just leave me alone!” the mail mare tries to escape to the air only to find her way out blocked by Dash.

“Oh no you don’t!” through careful maneuvering and midair technique the blue mare forces Derpy back to the ground. “Now Look! I don’t know what your deal is and what you’re really after. But I’m not leaving here without some answers!” Dash crosses her hooves as she hovers over Derpy Hooves “So start talking. What’s your angle? What do you have to gain by pranking everypony like this?”

“Nothing! Just………. leave me alone.” Derpy falls to her haunches hoping that her problems will just go away.

“Derpy…..” Pinkie walks forward and places her hoof on the scared Mail mare’s shoulder “I know that you are pretty scared right now. It’s sometimes scary to have to tell the truth.” The grey mare looks at the pink mare behind her, as her tearing up eyes begin to leak actual tears. “But I know deep down you’re a good pony that wouldn’t want to make others unhappy. So please tell us why you’re doing all these pranks. Pretty Please?”

For a moment the grey mare’s eyes brighten in hope as she looks into the pink mare’s smiling face. “Pinkie, I……” The grey mare turns away from Pinkie in shame, pulling herself out of the Pinkie’s grasp “I-I can’t explain it, I can’t control it! That’s why you just have to leave me alone!”

“What? You can’t control your pranking?” Dash scoffs “is that some kind of joke? Cause you’ve been intentionally targeting us since we began our little contest. That shows that you’re targeting us!”

“Dash stop it!” Pinkie turns to the blue mare a looks so scorn on her face “you’re scaring her!”

“She should be scared!” Dash practically yells at Pinkie “she’s been attacking ponies all over ponyville for some kind of sick prank and now she’s caught!” Dahs backs further into the grey mare’s face “so what is it hunh? Is your little friendly act to make yourself less suspicious or something? What are you after cough it up! And stop it with these pranks!”

Harnessing the force of her frustrations and anger the grey mail mare cries out in anger. “I said leave. Me. Alone!” As if responding to her call a Ghostly figure appears from behind her and shatters the hard cement before her reducing it to rubble in an instant. Both Pinkie and Dash back away from Derpy in awe and anxiousness as the ghostly figure from manifests itself more fully from behind Derpy. The dull steel grey stand is lanky and limber possessing a thin iron body and frame. The thickest part the torso looks to be composed of only iron hoops and a tightly pulled faux-leather Pilot’s jacket that matches the color of Derpy’s mane. Though the stand appears to be shaped like an earth pony the stand has four wings, one on each limb each one fluttering in the wind as if it were wearing them like a bracelet. Stranger still the stand appears covered in multiple propellers that spin and rotate as if propelled by an invisible breeze. The pilot’s capped head turns itself towards Dahs as its eyes narrow at the aggressor before it.

“So…. That’s your secret.” Dash remarks as the presence of the figure forces her to step back. “You control a stand. That’s how you were able to prank us and everypony in town so easily. You just used a stand power.”

Derpy’s eyes shoot open in a moment of recognition and surprise as the looks back and forth between the ghostly figure before her and Dash. “W-Wait! You can see this? I thought I was going crazy! Or worse that I was possessed by an evil ghost or something like that.” Derpy’s ears flatten “Wait, I’m not possessed by an evil spirit am I? It’s not contagious right?”

Dash looks at Derpy with a deadpan stare “Uh, no. A stand is, well it’s kind of like a ghost cause only ponies with stands of their own can see them. But it’s not a ghost, it’s like a ‘mani-fest-ation’ of your soul, it's’ a part of you that comes out when you touch a rare stone.”

Derpy muses over this new information “when I touched that rock I found on my route two weeks ago I got sick, and then this evil spirit appeared and started following me.” Derpy leaps to her hooves in hope “that means you can get rid of it right? Or keep it from hurting other ponies right? How do you……”

“That’s enough! I’m the one asking the questions here!” Dash takes a step forward reclaiming lost confidence and ground from before Derpy manifested her stand. “All right you’ve got a stand, but the question still remains why are you using it to make fools of every pony?”

Rainbow Dash asks intimidatingly “It’s because you’re after the Red Stones and Strange stones isn’t it! You’re using your pranks to check and see if they have stands too, cause if they have stands it’s likely that they have red stones too!” Dash beams with pride at her well-formed theory, confident that Derpy can’t talk her way out of her watertight argument.

“Red….. Stones? What are red stones?” Derpy asks genuinely confused “are they from a ruby or something?”

“What!” Dash interjects “Don’t try to play dumb with me! Red Stones are what give ponies stand powers so you would obviously be after them because we’re after them.”

“So these red stones gave me this ‘stand’ thing?” Derpy asks. “Why would I want more of these Red stones in the first place? I’m not trying to prank any pony! I can’t control this ‘stand’ thing. It leaves these ‘marks’ behind that cause dangerous things to happen!” Derpy rants desperate to be heard. “I’m not interested in these Red Stone things; I just want to be left alone.”

Dash pauses a moment for Derpy’s excuse before promptly blowing her off “A likely story. From where I’m flying it looks like you can control that thing pretty well to me. You targeted us because we’re with the big shot princess Representative and you thought that we’d be easy to take down……”

“I think that she’s telling the truth.” Pinkie states with certainty

“See? Even Pinkie’s agreeing with…. What!? Pinkie come on! You’ve got to admit that it’s just way too coincidental that she just happened to attack us with her stand!”

“Well I’m sorry Dashie.” Pinkie states “But Derpy’s’ a good pony and if she says that she can’t fully control her power than I believe her.”

Derpy begins to tear up a little and is in the process of saying something to Pinkie when Dash interrupts her “Whatever, but I still say that we bring her in to Twilight. If she can’t’ control her stand and it's’ hurting ponies automatically maybe she can help Derpy out. Oh hey and check it out!” Dash reaches behind her back and pulls out a double white band “Twilight gave me this cool Anti-Stand hoof cuff to try on so we can bring her in all cool like!”

“Well I suppose that would be okay.” Pinkie muses to herself “Derpy would you like to come with us and Talk to Twilight? She knows more about stands than any pony so I’m sure that she could help you out.”

Derpy shuffles her hooves nervously debating her options. On one hoof she really trusted Pinkie, despite Pinkie’s usual zaniness she could be very reliable at times and if Pinkie thought Twilight could help than it was usually worth trying. However on the other hoof what if her stand couldn’t be cured like Pinkie said? What there was no controlling this power that she had? What if they took her away to those special prisons that she heard about where ponies who couldn’t control their magic go? What about her daughter, who would take care of her if she wasn’t there? “Well, I’m not so sure Pinkie, I mean……”

“Yack-Yack-Yack.” Dash drops down right in front of Derpy “Let’s just get these babies on! Ever since Twilight used these on Lyra I’ve wanted to…..”

Derpy’s stand turned to face Dash a fierce yellow glow in its eyes. Perhaps it was due to the suddenness that Dash dropped down. Perhaps it was to Derpy’s worries over whether or not going with Dash and Pinkie was the best idea. Or perhaps the stand just didn’t like the Rainbow Pegasus’ attitude. The motives behind it were quite possibly unknowable. However what could not be denied was that the moment that Dash tried to slip the cuffs over Derpy’s hooves, her stand shot out and with one power packed punch sent the Rainbow mare sailing flat on her back. The hoof-cuffs clinked on the ground a second later as the stand lashed out again breaking the cuffs into pieces with three inaccurate punches contorting the steel of the cuffs beyond recognition.

The grey mailmare looks on in fear at the Pegasus “Dash! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to…… I mean you just frightened me and….. Are you all right?”

The Rainbow mare flips herself over wiping a little of the blood from her muzzle as she rises to her hooves “So that’s the way it's’ going to be, you’re going to lure me in close so that you can sucker punch me hunh?” the rainbow mare turns to face Derpy the fire of combat burning in her eyes “all right, you want to do this the hard way, fine, we’ll do this the hard way.”

Derpy backpedals as the Rainbow mare takes another step forward her entire body ready to pounce at the slightest movement from the mailmare in front of her. Raising her hoof to take another step forward Dash prepares to leap forward and attack with her high speed attacks when she is stopped by Derpy’s voice.

“Stop Dash!” Derpy points her hoof towards the Rainbow mare “Don’t step there! Don’t step on that bubble.” Rainbow Dash stops her hoof in midair as she looks where she was about to step and sure enough the ground has a small bubble marking on it.

“What’s this? Is this a bubble?”

Derpy nods “I was telling you about this before Dash, my stand leaves marks behind that create Dangerous zones! If you step on that mark I won’t be able to prevent myself from hurting you!”

“Is that a threat?!” Dahs glares at the grey mare, her resolve returning  as she become more and more convinced in Derpy’s guilt “I knew that you were an enemy! Well thanks for the warning, but it’s totally not necessary!”

Dash takes to the air hovering over the mark on the ground, “in case you forgot, I can fly. You won’t be getting any or our strange stones or making a fool out of me with your little prank bubbles.”

With a quick snap of her wings the Rainbow mare rushes Derpy her arms pointed to attack. Attacking reflexively Derpy’s stand swings its propellered hoof at Rainbow missing her by a large margin as the rainbow mare punches the mail mare with a heavy stomach uppercut. Derpy gasps as she falls to her elbows trying to regain her breath as Dash backpedals out of the mare’s range. “Give it a rest Derpy, you don’t stand a chance just give up and deactivate your stand already.”

Looking the Rainbow mare in the eyes a sudden intensity of anger fills the mare. “I told you Dash, I can’t control it! It’s attacking on its own! And I don’t want to fight you!” As if responding to her anger the stand advances and throws another punch, however Dash doesn’t even need to put effort into dodging it as the stand misses her completely.

“Right, and your stand is just coincidentally beating the stuffing out of me. I should have known” Dash lands on the ground as she circles around the mailmare to get a better angle of attack “If I remember right, you’re the one that attacked me first! And no matter who started it, I’m ending it.”

“Dashie! Just stop this!” both Dash and Derpy stop all point all their focus at the Pink mare on the sidelines. Pinkie falls to her rump as her eyes fill with tears as her mane begins to deflate “Just….. stop. I don’t want my friends fighting like this. If Derpy really can’t control what she’s doing then…… I just…… stop. Please……”

Dash’s fire is quenched as she watches her friend powerlessly watch her from the sidelines. As she gazes into her eyes dash begins to realize the depth of her own actions, she is literally forcing a pony to go with her against her will. And regardless of what she has or is doing that pony is her best friend’s friend. Looking at Pinkie, Dash takes a deep calming breath in and out smothering her anger in favor of empathy.

“I know pinkie.” Dash sighs as she looks back into Pinkie’s eyes giving a stern but assuring look “I know that it’s hard for you to watch, but this has to be done.” Dash states sternly as she looks at the scared mailmare in front of her. “Whether it’s intentional or not Derpy’s been hurting ponies and if she’s going to get better than I need to bring her down and bring her in.”

Dash turns to Derpy her fire rekindled “And if you are telling the truth, and you really can’t control your stand, then that’s all the more reason to knock you out so you can’t use it to hurt anypony. Then I’m going to bring you to Twilight so she can make sure that your power won’t endanger my friends anymore.”

Dash raises her hoof to eye level as she judges the stand’s range and speed “From what I can tell your stand is really powerful but it can’t hit the broadside of a barn. I’m guessing that it can only hit something when it’s right in front of your muzzle.” The mare pounds her hooves together a rainbow aura encasing them “So to show you that I’m not doing this to spite you, I’ll bring you down in one punch! With my own stand Valkyrie.”

Launching off the ground like a prismatic torpedo Dash sails through the air past Derpy’s guard and her stand’s flailing attack. In the space of less than a second the mare uppercuts the Mailmare with a single rainbow powered explosion sending Derpy corkscrewing into the air with the force of Dash’s Valkyrie. Landing on the ground dramatically Dash turns her back to her opponent as Derpy hits the dirt with an unceremonious thud. “Sorry Derpy…..” Dash cranes her neck behind her to look at her opponent. “But your stand was a thousand years too early to beat me, with pranks or with stand powers.”

Walking a distance away from the grey mailmare Dash walks up to pinkie putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder “Hey Pinks? Are you okay?”

Pinkie looks between her friend Dash, and the prone Derpy behind her as a melancholy but kind smile returns to the party pony’s face. Wiping a few errant tears from her eyes the pink mare’s curly mane begins to return “T-Thanks Dashie, I don’t know what came over me back there it’s not like me to cry like that.”

“Hey don’t sweat it.” Dash brushes a tear from Pinkie’s eye “You were worried about your friends, it’s natural.” Dash turns to look at Derpy’s’ prone form “Don’t worry once we bring her to Twilight we’ll know what to do with her.”

“Y-Yeah….” Pinkie looks at Derpy “That’s what I’m worried about. What if she really can’t control her power? What if she really does have to be taken away? What if…..”

Pinkie’s rant is cut off as Dash places her hoof over her mouth silencing the mare “What if a giant meteor falls out of the sky and crushes us flat? Like I said don’t worry about it! Twilight’s a wiz at this kind of stuff.”

A childish grin spreads across her face “But now that it’s over, did you see me back there?! How awesome was that? I totally defeated a rogue stand user and the legendary prankster! That means I win the contest!”

“WHAT!?” pinkie gapes “You’re still thinking about that! Dashie……”

“What Pinkie? Jealous that you lost?”

“Pfft. No way! I was going to say that I should have won!” Pinkie says with sass as her normal smile returns. “Just cause you defeated Derpy doesn’t mean that you’re a better pranker. The winner should be me!”

“What? And why should you win? All you did was sit on your rump and cry like a baby!”

At the mention of the word ‘baby’ pinkie begins to tear up her eyes threatening to overflow as her mane slowly deflates.

“Oh Celestia. Look Pinkie I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to call you a baby I was just….”

Leaping up the mare bops Dash on the nose instantly returning to her normal cheerful self “Ha Ha! Got you Dashie! You’re just way too easy to fool! Just like you were before.” The pink mare swoons backwards as if acting in a fancy play “T-Thanks Dashie, I don’t know what came over me back there… BWA Ha Ha!”

Dash blushes crimson as small bubbles fall over her from above “What! No way that was an act! You were actually crying your eyes out there!”

“Maybe….” Pinkie smiles coyly as bubbles continue to rain down “or Maybe I was just pranking you!”

“Bull.” Dash states defiantly “…and will you stop with these bubbles, it’s not much of a prank if it’s not funny…..”

Pinkie immediately stops laughing “Um Dashie I’m not making any bubbles. I left my bubble machine at home today because I thought that I wouldn’t need it.”

Dash swats at the bubbles which shatter into oblivion at the slightest touch from her hoof “Seriously what the hay? Bubbles? Where did these come from?” Dahs freezes as she remembers something that Derpy said before “wait a second Pinkie, didn’t Derpy….”

“Is that….. Is that all you’ve got?” Dash freezes as the hairs on her neck stand on end. Both mares turn around slowly with stunned expressions to see the very same grey mail mare that they thought was completely unconscious rising shakily to her hooves.

“If you thought…..” Derpy stutters as small amounts of blood trickle down her face “if you thought that you could just knock me down like that, and take me away from my daughter………from my home, you had better think again. I’ve taken worse punches than that…..”

Derpy takes a step forward pointing an intimidating hoof at Dash’s forehead “I told you I didn’t want to fight you, but if you are going to pick on me…. Than I have no choice, I’ll fight back with everything I’ve got.” Derpy strikes a sudden confident pose her wall eyes lining up for once in her life as she stares Dash down “It’s time to settle the score. Right here and now. And this time, you won’t see me back down.”

“Derpy.” Dash states visibly shaken at the mail mare’s sudden change in personality  “Look at you you’re barely standing, just give up and come with us and I won’t have to hurt you.”

Derpy smirks “is that a threat?” Derpy points her hoof towards the stunned speedster “Sorry Dash but I just don’t feel like losing to you anymore.”

Dash narrows her eyes “What do you mean by….”

“Dash look out!” all of a sudden Dash finds herself pinned to the ground by a pink party mare as a barrage of random items falls out of the sky right on top of the two ponies. Dash and pinkie’s forms are lost in the dust as no less than a flowerpot, an anvil, a cart full of hay and a grant piano falls right on top of the two unlucky mares the intense weight of the items alone capable of killing a dragon.

Meanwhile up one hundred hooves in the air, the ponyville moving crew looks down sheepishly at the several items that they just let fall out of their moving van, each member looking at the other as they speculate the cost of the times that they just inadvertently destroyed. Whistling innocently to themselves the moving crew flies off in a hurry hoping to Celestia that no pony would discover the extent to which they screwed up.

Meanwhile back on the ground a certain cerulean mare convinced that she and pinkie have been crushed to death screams out in agony. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

“Dashie……”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

“Dashie………..”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

The pink mare takes a large draught of air “DASHIE!!” Rainbow Dash stops screaming as she looks over to the pink mare across from her “Dashie, we’re fine. No need to scream silly filly.”

“Bu…What?! But there’s no way!” Sure enough even though booth mares are pinned under hundreds of pounds of rubble both are perfectly unharmed, suffering not even minor breathing troubles from the monumental weight above their heads. “That makes no sense! We should be crushed to death! Was it something that you did Pinkie?”

“No I did that.” Derpy walks up to the two mares manifesting her stand “That’s the power of my bubble markings” Derpy extends her hoof to her flank pulling off a round bubble shaped sphere from her cutie mark and presenting it before the two mares. “True the bubble traps may be pretty nasty, and they may make ponies sad, but they never really hurt any ponies even if the ‘prank’ normally would. That’s why all that stuff could fall on you and you’re not even hurt.”

Dash flails about trying to dislodge herself from under the rubble but to no avail as Derpy walks up to Dash with a disappointed look on her face “I’m ashamed of you Dashie….” Dash literally winces from the kind mare’s reproach “I tried to warn you not to touch the bubbles that my stand creates. I tried to tell you that I didn’t want to hurt you. But you………. You picked on me anyways! Even when I told you to stop! And you never listened!”

Lifting her muzzle at the mare in reproach the wall eyed mare puts the bubble back on her flank as her stand strikes a pose. “So I hit you with a special attack that I just made up, I call it Bubble launcher!” Derpy grins goofily as she admires her handiwork “Pretty cool hunh. I didn’t think that I would be able to throw my danger bubbles like that. But I guess I’m getting better at using this stand thing.”

Derpy’s face suddenly brightens as a brilliant idea fills her head “Say you gave your stand thing a name hunh Dashie? I should give my stand a name too!” Derpy taps her hoof to her chin and sits on her rump in deep thought. “Well, my stand is kind of dangerous and it has propellers on it….. Pinkie?” Derpy turns towards the pinned party mare “You always have good ideas what do you think?”

Pinkie scrunches her face in intense concentration as she puts her best brain cells on the case. “Well  there’s no real rule for naming stands other than it has to be a title of something, most often a song or a movie title. But I named my own stand Surprise, cause it was so surprising! So if you asked me I would say name it after what it does. Or whatever floats your boat! You’re the boss Derpy!”

“Wowie! You have a stand too Pinkie? That’s so cool! And that’s some great advice too! I knew that I could count on you Pinkie!” Pinkie beams with happiness at Derpy’s compliment as the grey mail mare puts her mind back on track with thinking up a name for her stand; her eyes rolling in her head as she concentrates with all her might. “Humh…… well my stand creates Dangerous zones…… Oh I’ve got it! Danger Zone!” Derpy puffs out her chest in pride “Yeah! That sounds really cool! What do you think Dash?”

Dash laughs insincerely at Derpy’s name for her stand as the Grey mare poses in front of her “He He! Yeah that’s a great name Derpy! A real go getter. Now if you don’t mind pulling all this stuff off of us so we can just put all this behind us and laugh it off.” Dash struggles one last time against the pile of debris as she looks into Derpy’s eyes  “Hunh what do you say? Buddy old Pal?”

“Oh no I can’t let you go yet!” Derpy claps her hooves together as her stand mirrors her actions menacingly.

This action does not go unnoticed by a certain cerulean mare who gulps heavily “Uh Derpy what are you doing? Um could you not, I don’t know, go waving that stand around? You’re kind of making me nervous.”

Derpy points her stand’s winged hoof at Rainbow Dash as she lines up her perfect shot “Now I’m sorry if this will hurt a little. But you need to learn that bullying ponies is never acceptable! You can’t just go around picking on ponies for something that they can’t control!”

Derpy winds up her stand as she readies the most intense haymaker of all time. “Trust me……” the mail mare whispers under her breath “.....I know that feeling all too well.”

Dash flails about as she tries to move an inch, to dodge, to move out of the way, to do something but both her and Pinkie are completely and utterly pinned. Both are sitting ducks for an attack from a vengeful mare that there is no getting away from. “Derpy! Come on Mare! Let’s just talk this out like civilized ponies!” Dash laughs nervously as she realizes that there is no way that she can dodge Derpy’s blow and from experience she knows that the wall eyed mare packs a real punch  “I’m sure that we can come to a nice, reasonable………”

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

With one single punch, Derpy’s Danger Zone sends the two prone mares flying at near supersonic speeds as they crash through the building behind them with enough destructive force to send them careening through the multiple walls of reinforced plaster and drywall. Wall after wall crumbles as the two mares crash through the walls on a path of incredible destruction and untold devastation.

……….Meanwhile in Carousel Boutique…………

“……..Rarity Darling You have truly outdone yourself.” The ivory mare smiles to herself as she cuts the last lacy ribbon off of her latest creations, several Gala Dresses designed solely for the princess of Equestria and her royal entourage. The dresses stood magically suspended above the floor encased in her magic, as the mare made her final touches. Normally she would use a mannequin, but this was no normal order, after all this was for the princess and her frame was much bigger than a normal pony.

Ever since Twilight had promised the fashionista the rights to make dresses for the highest levels of nobility in Canterlot the Ivory mare had been enduring moment after agonizing moment crossing her hooves, hoping beyond hope for the immortal ruler of Equestria to consent to wearing her fashion. Finally after what seemed like eons the Princess had come across Rarity’s request forwarded by none other than her prized Student and kindly requested a demonstration of her talents saying that she would be happy to try on anything a Friend of Twilight made. Rarity’s heart might have stopped at the news of this moment if it were not for uplifting feeling of euphoria that filled her every essence. She Rarity Belle, was the official dressmaker for the Queen. All of a sudden all the losses she suffered at the hooves of ‘more capable’ canterlot show ponies meant nothing, she was a designer for royalty after all! No longer could a pony look down on her work anymore, her Dresses were now the pinnacle of fashion and fabulousness.

And indeed her dresses were majestic, the two most perfect outfits that Rarity could design. After all nothing short of her absolute best would do for the god ruler of Equestria and so Rarity had put all her efforts into these two dresses. A full three days and nights of sweat and tears of careful stitching embroidering and sewing that was preceded by two whole weeks of flawless designing in the early hours of the morning. However standing back to admire them Rarity couldn’t help but feel that all of her work was worth it, the dresses were stunning.

The first Dress Rarity chose to embroider the majesty of the sun and all its glory, a long flowing ball gown embroidered with a flawless representation of Celestia’s majestic sun in red diamonds. Lace of the purest white flowed out of every sunbeam on the dress like water from a stream, crisscrossing over each other as they covered the dress in a thatched pattern. Around the neck of the ball gown a white hoof stitched ruff accentuated the wearer’s long neck and left room for Celestia’s signature gold studded jewelry on the chest.

The second outfit was the polar opposite of the first, designed to represent Celestia’s dominance as the warden of the night, a dark black elegant cocktail dress highlighted with dark blues and shall shimmering diamonds to represent stars. Long strings of sapphire and diamond beads lined the dresses sides each one never longer than six inches, and would give the impression of the moving night’s sky with every step the wearer made. The short sleeveless foreleg coverings resembled more of armor than a dress and were designed to convey the mysterious power of the night.

Rarity looked upon her creation and saw that it was good. Surely these two dresses would make her the cornerstone of Equestrian fashion and would also make a flawless gift for the princess. “Flawless Rarity….” Rarity tells herself as she looks upon her creation “…..Absolutely flawless. I daresay that I really think that you have outdone yourself this….”

BOOM!

With force enough to shatter the dreams of one thousand children the wall to Rarity’s left explodes in a cacophony of sound. Before the mare can even process what has happened the wall behind her boutique explodes sending two Pink and Blue projectiles sailing through her store and tearing through her dresses before flying out the other side of her shop with a resounding crash. The mare blinks in dumbfounded surprise as she stares at the spot where her dresses were magically suspended. “What?”

Pulling her head through the wall where the projectiles came from Derpy looks through the gaping hole in Rarity’s shop as she gasps in horror “Oh no! I didn’t mean to hit Pinkie too! I’m so sorry Pinkie!”

“What.” The stunned Fashionista’s mane springs a little out of place. “What just happened to my dresses?” half stunned the ivory mare cranes her neck to look out the gaping hole in the other side of Carousel boutique, her heart stopping at the sight her eyes are transmitting to her already stalled brain.

Hanging by a flagpole outside her shop and dressed in the torn and dirtied remains of her fabulous dresses are the unconscious forms of the two most troublesome ponies in ponyville, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Each one is tangled up in the cord of the flagpole, hanging upside down giving each and every pony in the town square an unflattering presentation of the two mare’s spanked rears, a large horseshoe shaped mark a testament to their through flank kicking. The entire town square stands stunned at the sight of the two most mischievous ponies dressed up like princesses and hanging from the flagpole no pony able or willing to say even a single word. Suddenly as if unbidden a small snicker escapes from a nameless pony in the crowd, only for it to be quickly suppressed. Yet the offending noise is soon joined by another snicker, and then another as the snickers evolve into chuckles more and more ponies unable to suppress the wellspring of mirth birthed from the absurdity of the situation. Then as if no pony can stand it anymore the entire crowd breaks out into uproarious laughter at the sight before them, each one bellowing at the top of their lungs at the two unconscious figures hanging from the flagpole like piñatas.

Everypony except a stunned fashionista her eyes twitching and her mind spinning at the destruction of a dress she spent months in preparation for. Her mind finally catching up to what she is seeing the mare looks upon the destruction of her beautiful dresses and despairs.

Raising her hooves to the heavens the ivory mare shouts over the crowd with the anguish only a denied Drama Queen can muster

“CURSE YOU PINKIE PIE!!”

“CURSE YOU RAINBOW DASH!!”

“CURSE YOU CAUSALITY!!”

“CURSE YOU ALL TO TARTARUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!”

……………………………..

Her forehead throbbing and her mind hazy Rainbow dash the defeated groans in pain as she tries to make sense of her surroundings. Looking around Dash can clearly see that she is no longer outside. It seems as though she has been placed on a green couch inside an average home of some kind not too nice but not a bad place to live either. Looking down at her torso the rainbow maned mare notices a light yellow blanket covering her torso a soft pillow rests under her head, there is even a glass of milk sits on the coffee table to her left. ‘Okay, so wherever I am at least it’s friendly.’

The cerulean mare groggily throws a light yellow blanket off her body as she better positions herself on the couch sitting herself up and propping her back against its back. “Don’t move….” Dash spins her head to see Derpy hooves walking towards her, a tray with a piping hot kettle of tea on her back “…..you shouldn’t move so soon. You were out for quite a while. I guess I hit you a little too hard.”

Dash’s imminent interjection is cut off by a smaller gentler voice. “Mom? Are you okay in there?” Dash turns her gaze to the new comer in the room a small grey coated unicorn filly with a scraggly blond mane and a worried look on her face. Dash guesses that she can’t be older than that filly that always watches her tricks, Scootaloo or something as the filly also lacks a cutie Mark.

Derpy turns to the filly giving her an assuring look “it’s all right sweetie I’m just having a conversation with Dash here. Why don’t you go and help Pinkie in the kitchen?” The grey filly looks between the two mares in the room, worried but not nervous as Dash finally pieces together the fact that this must be Derpy’s daughter. Dinky takes one last look at dash giving her the most intimidating look a filly can muster before walking back out of the room.

“Sorry about Dinky.” Derpy apologizes “she worries about her mother more than she should.” Reaching behind her back the mail mare picks up a cup with her hooves while simultaneously picking up the boiling kettle with her mouth. Pouring a cup of the light teal liquid into the cup she hooves it over to Dash with a smile on her face. “Here. Drink this, it’s an old herbal remedy the previous mail mare taught me, it is amazing at relieving sore muscles and body tension. Trust me I know that it works.”

Dash looks suspiciously at the cup before gulping the entire cup down in half a second, not even bothered at the piping hot temperature of the tea. Smacking her lips the mare judges the taste “Not bad, it’s got a good taste, though I’m not much of one for tea parties.” Dash looks around the room “So this is your house hunh? Why am I here?”

Derpy chuckles “Well silly I sort of brought you both, that is you and Pinkie here after I sort of…….. Well, I knocked you clean through Rarity’s’ boutique and into the town square.” Derpy puts a hoof over her mouth as she points to dash’s torso “And you kind of picked up some fancy new clothes on your way!”

Dash looks down and immediately regrets it as she sees herself wearing a frilly white dress, the kind that she would never be caught dead in. Dash blushes as she vainly tries to cover her un-exposed body “Derpy, Please tell me I wasn’t passed out in the town square wearing this.”

“No don’t worry Dashie……...”

Dash breathes a sigh of relief “thank the Goddess.”

“…….You were hanging by a flagpole in the town square wearing that!”

Dash groans as her face lands heavily into her lap, her body temporarily losing its ability to stand straight due to the shame she feels over the loss of her awesomeness. Seeing Dash’s condition Derpy pats the blue mare on the back and comforts her “Don’t worry about it, rumors and things like that come and go. Ponies will forget about it in a week……”

“A WEEK?!”

“……Well it could be three days if something else happens, but a week is the usual norm for ponies forgetting stuff. But I don’t think that Rarity will be as forgiving.” Derpy shivers as she remembers the face of the fashionista, the full wrath of a scorned mare “she looked pretty steamed.”

Dash groans again “Rarity’s the least of my worries, Ponies will never forget this!” Dash turns to the grey mailmare as she rants on “I mean I have a reputation to uphold! I mean what kind of pony gets knocked out and dumped in the middle of town square in a namby panby dress?”

Dash grabs the Derpy looking her dead in the eyes “I’ll tell you who doesn’t, the wonderbolts! And now even if I do impress them with my super cool tricks they’ll still know about this!” Dash looks up at the ceiling as she pictures the look on her idol’s spitfire’s face. “And that’s not all. Ponies know that they can depend on me because of my flawless image! If ponies don’t’ think that I’m cool than no pony will trust me, they’ll think ‘oh it’s dash the loser’ no pony can depend on a pony like that! What will my friends think about me if I can’t……”

“I’m Sorry!” Derpy blurts out

“Excuse me? Derpy what are you….” Dash stop mid rant as she sees the wall eyed mare beginning to cry in front of her, her face filled with shame and regret.

Derpy’s wings bristle as she repeats herself “I said that I’m so sorry! I never meant to pull those pranks and make a fool of anypony, especially a pony as cool as you Dashie.” Derpy looks down at the ground tears streaming down her face and dripping onto the floor. “I got really sick one day and I was so scared for Dinky because I thought she would get sick too. When I got better I……. I thought that it was all over but then this invisible thing started flowing me and nopony else could see it so I thought I was going crazy and all these accidents started happening around me and I didn’t know what to do and……”

The grey mare is practically sobbing at this point “…..and…. and you just came out of nowhere and started yelling at me and I…… I……… I have no excuse for how I acted. There is never any excuse for hurting a pony like that even unintentionally. So I’m sorry.”

Dash mind stalls as the looks upon the face of the crying Derpy hooves however this time Dash is able to glance beyond the superficial labels that she and ponies like her. Labels of a klutz, of a two faced pony after her own means, of a walking spiteful disaster. Instead she sees the face of a frightened mare who loves her family and obtained a curse that caused her to unintentionally bring harm to others. “…..so your real purpose wasn’t to prank any pony? It was to deliver the ponies of ponivile’s mail?”

“I’m so sorry!” Derpy bows her head.

Dash places a reassuring hoof on Derpy’s shoulder as she raises her lowered head “No Derpy, I’m sorry. I should have realized it earlier, Pinkie was right; you would never hurt anypony if you could help it. I just got, well I got carried away with all that was happening. Can you ever forgive me?”

Derpy sniffs as she wipes the tears from her eyes “R-Really?” She asks.

“Really Really.” Dash nods

“Really Really Really?!” Pinkie says as she jumps out from between the two giving them both a mild fright. However this fight is forgotten as the Pink Party mare pulls the two into a warm embrace. “Don’t worry Derpy I forgive you too! And I’m sure that everypony in town would forgive you if they knew it was cause of a stand. Well Twilight said that I couldn’t tell anypony else about stands, or that I couldn’t tell anypony to tell anypony about stands, or that I couldn’t tell anypony to tell a pony to tell another pony about stands. But I bet that even if they didn’t know that it was a stand and if they knew that you were the legendary prankster they’d still forgive you because they all love you so much! In fact some of your pranks were really funny so I bet a lot of ponies enjoyed them, they were just scared cause didn’t know who was pranking them!”

“Pinkie’s right mom.” Derpy turns to see the face of her daughter carrying a small tray of muffins in her the yellow glow of her levitation. Placing the try on the table Dinky looks at her mother “You taught me and every pony in this town that it’s wrong to hate or dislike ponies for something that they can’t control, so they’d never be upset if you knew that it was an accident. And even if you did mean it….”

Derpy rushes forward hugging her mother rubbing her teary eyes into her mother’s coat “….you’d still be the best mom in the world, and nothing could change that.” Derpy’s tears cease as she proudly holds her daughter in her arms, demonstrating the depth of her love in a way that requires no words or language to express

“Besides…..” Dinky breaks the hug giggling a little to herself “….Some of your pranks were pretty funny.”

“I know right!” Pinky leaps up displaying her new frayed black dress “I mean who would have imagined that me and Dash would look so good?”

Dash glares at Pinkie as the rest of the room breaks out into a fit of giggles. Even Derpy begins to cheer up “I just wish that I could control my power better.” Derpy begins to droop again as the laughter in the room dies down.

“I mean I seem to lose control of my stand when I’m really emotional, but I just wish that I could control my stand all the time; like I could during that fight with Dash.” The mare taps her hooves nervously as her lazy eye dangles off to the side “I mean then it was Dangerous fight but it was almost like Danger Zone was a part of me then, like it listened to my every command. But I guess now I’ll have to be taken in to Twilight since I can’t control it……..”

Suddenly a lightbulb goes off above Dash’s head “That’s it! Thanks Pinkie!”

Pinkie takes the lightbulb that she placed over Dash’s head and stores it in her mane “No Problemo Dashie, Now what’s your brilliant idea?”

Dash pulls the Pink mare into a huddle “Follow my lead.” Dash whispers into Pinkie’s ear much to the confusion of Derpy. “Yes Pinkie you’re right! That was an awesome prank, it probably had to be the best prank of all time! It was so much better than ours.”

“Well I don’t think that it’s very fair to say that her prank was the best of all time. I mean there was this one time when I….” Dash elbows the pink mare who remembers her role “….Oh yes! I mean how could Derpy’s prank not be the best of all time? I mean it was so Derpy!”

“Yes it was so awesome I think that there is no question about it! What do you think Pinkie?”

“Well I don’t know what you’re thinking but I agree with what you agree with Dashie!”

“Then it’s settled” Dash raises her hoof ceremoniously over Derpy’s head “Derpy in the name of the Lather….” Dash taps Derpy’s left shoulder “…..the Pun….” Dash taps Derpy’s right shoulder “and the Holy boast, I hereby dub thee the Master Pranker of Ponyville and the winner of our prank contest!”

“What!?” Derpy Exclaims “But it was a complete accident! I didn’t mean to prank any pony!”

“That’s why you’re the obvious winner Derpy!” Dash smiles confidently “You’re a natural!”

Derpy face hooves “…..That’s not what I meant”

“Don’t forget about your prize!” Dash exclaims “According to the rules of our prank contest the losers have to serve the winner for three days!”

“What!?” this time Pinkie is the one yelling “But, you, and me and slave and….”

“Pinkie’s right!” Derpy exclaims “I don’t want you to be my servants! I don’t want any of….”

Dash stops Derpy by placing her hoof over the mare’s mouth “Nu-uh! Not another word! You’re not getting off that easily! As your servants for the next two days Pinkie and I as master stand users will be training you nonstop! To better fulfill your desires we will train you for three days and nights instilling in you all the skills and talent to control your stand like you request.”

Derpy and Pinkie stand stunned as the cerulean speedster places her hoof reassuringly on the mailmare shoulder.  “And by the end of our studios sessions you will have finally learned to control your stand powers so that you Derpy Hooves will never hurt another pony by accident ever again! So….. What do you say do we have a deal?”

Suddenly realizing the extent to what the blue mare is sacrificing for her Derpy begins to once again tear up from the thoughtfulness of the mare before her. Just this morning she was terrified of what the future would bring, it seemed like her life was spiraling out of control, and that she would end up losing everything she cherished. And now she is standing here, supported by ponies who care about her and are willing to do everything in their power to help her in her hour of need.

Taking in her sudden and complete reversal of fortunes with an open heart and mind Derpy wipes the tears off her face stares straight (Or as straight as one can with cross eyes) into Dash’s eyes her fire ignited. “Well if that’s the case……. Then I accept and promise to take both of your training seriously!” The grey mare snaps a smart salute “I won’t let you down!”

“All right then!” Dash leaps into the air “Come on Training starts now! Let’s head on out to the back yard for some sparring, last one there is a rotten muffin!” With no more words needing to be said the rest of the group rushes out the back door and into the open air as the sun slowly lowers itself from the sky.

Pinkie however doesn’t move her mane visibly deflating as she stares at the empty door frame “But…… But……. I wanted to spend special times with Dashie……”

Dash sticks her head in through the door frame “what was that Pinkie?”

Pinkie's mane springs back into place “Nothing! It’s nothing Dash!”

“……Yeah whatever………” Dahs rubs her neck shyly emulating a certain yellow Pegasus “um Pinkie………”

“…Yeah Dashie?”

“Do you want to…… um…….. Get a cupcake together after this? As friends of course!”

“You mean, like a friend date?” Pinkie asks cocking her head

“Yeah! As a friend Date…………..and nothing else.”

“Nothing else?” Pinkie’s mane turns wavy as she sultry voice returns “Are you sssssssuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrreeeeee you don’t want anything else? Not even a little…. Dessert?” Pinkie says as she pulls out a pink frosted cupcake from behind her back.

Dash visibly sweats as she looks at Pinkie “Well……. Ummmmm, mayb…..”

Dinky shoves her head through the door frame, the sound of her barking voice snapping the two lovebirds out of their trance “Geese you two! Can you go two minutes without shipping each other? Well you’re not getting all lovey-dovey in my home.” Dinky rolls her eyes “Seriously you two get a room!”

Dash looks around “….Um, Kid? We kind of are in a room.”

“…………… Just get outside and help my mom already.” Dinky walks out of the room in a huff “Seriously, adults are so gross.”