Princess Celestia loved to visit her magic school, the school she founded centuries ago after the construction and founding of Canterlot. A place to nurture and cultivate the talents and potential of all unicorns who were deemed to be gifted with magic. To educate and train the mages and wizards and enchantresses of tomorrow. For the Princess of the Sun, teaching was perhaps her deepest joy and noblest obligation. Certainly, to rule and lead and guide her little ponies was her duty and pledge, but there was something special about helping these little unicorns find the magic inside to become the best of themselves they could be.

She enjoyed walking the halls of her school, greeting her staff and students, encouraging everypony here to do their best, whether in their studies, their magical practices, or even their hobbies and whatever made them happy or brought them a sense of fulfillment or accomplishment. Speaking of...

"Twilight, my young student!" she called, seeing the little lavender filly, who froze mid-step and smiled to see her teacher coming her way. "Off to alchemy class?"

The 10 year-old filly gazed up in warm wonder of her teacher. Celestia stood taller than almost anypony the filly knew while she was so tiny compared to the princess, who knelt down into a pony-loaf position, where her legs were tucked underneath her, to be closer to Twilight's eye-level.

"Uh-huh, Professor Elixir is going to show us the alchemic process of turning a liquid into a solid," replied Twilight with excited eyes, "using water! I can't even imagine it, solid water that isn't ice?!"

"Well, I suppose I shouldn't keep you," Celestia chuckled, proud to see her new protégé was settling in well with her new classes. "But before you go, tell me, Twilight? How is Spike doing?"

"He's doing great," Twilight smiled happily, "Mom and Dad and Shining Armor love him almost as much as I do! Although Dad almost got his mane singed when Spike was getting fussy the other day."

Celestia nodded, glad to hear it. It still baffled her, how that egg hatched when it wasn't even supposed to, for Twilight's entrance exam, contrary to what she'd been told, had actually been a test to see how she handled failure. Then, there was that strange phenomenon that caused Twilight to experience a powerful magic surge.

Twilight... as well as her ward.

"Well, in any case, you'd better run along," Celestia leaned down to give her student a hug, with her large warm, and angelic wing which made the filly giggle.

"Okay, and we're still gonna have our private lesson today, right?"

"Of course we will," assured the princess before she gently nudged Twilight along. "Off you go."

"Okay, bye-bye, Princess!" Twilight scampered off to her next class, leaving Celestia beaming with motherly pride.

A pride that soon shadowed with concern. She hadn't seen her ward this morning at breakfast, having only found a note on his bedroom door that he'd already left for school and was going to have breakfast at the cafeteria. She hoped he was doing well, given what happened last month, and how it led to... a miracle.

Remembering a folder she was going to read, she made her way to her personal office.

Though it was her school, Celestia was not the headmistress. Her royal duties demanded too much of her time to devote herself entirely to the school itself. So she settled for being head of the school board, as well as a guest lecturer every now and then. Still, whenever she took an interest in some of the students, she devoted a weekly period to a private class of these select students, which now included Twilight Sparkle.

Entering her personal office however, Celestia found herself facing a rather random sight.

*Bounce-bounce-bounce-bounce...*

Bouncing up and down upon her desk, was a red bouncy ball. One of the balls for her school's gym class, no doubt. Strangely however, while it was in motion, given the bouncing up and down, it wasn't moving anywhere else. It maintained a steady pace of bouncing while remaining stationary upon her desk. For some reason, it made Celestia think of a metronome.

Having a feeling there was more to this ball than meets the eye, Celestia suddenly realized, It's April Foal's Day...

How could she have forgotten this specific holiday? Every year on April Foal's Day, it was a tradition for the students to play magical pranks on the staff. At first, it had been prohibited, but it didn't stop the pranks from happening. It only encouraged the students to get more creative with their pranks, using the magic they learned to pull them off, and some of them had in fact been most ingenious and creative.

There was the time one student enchanted the hallways to make rude and obnoxious flatulent noises whenever somepony stepped on the floors. The time an alchemy project flooded the west wing with soap bubbles that randomly entrapped students and faculty members in giant floating bubbles that just wouldn't pop for hours. And who could forget the Bloody Mare jump-scares in the filly restroom mirrors fifty four years ago?

Eventually, Celestia decided inform the students that while pranks were not outright prohibited, they were discouraged. But she made sure they got the idea to carry on the tradition as long as they didn't get caught, their pranks didn't cause anypony harm, or disrupted the school too extremely. April Foals Day was actually something Celestia looked forward to, because every now and then a student would pull off a prank with magic so inventive or advanced she had to include them into her private class.

She lit up her horn, casting a sensory spell and felt the magic that was clearly enchanting this ball. All she determined was a simple charm that kept an object from leaving its current position, except...

Except this ball is able to move, even if it's just bouncing up and down, she considered as she reached towards it, only for the ball to suddenly veer away from her hoof, to her confusion.

"What?!" It couldn't be, she'd sensed the charm was keeping the ball stationary... only now it was beginning to bounce everywhere in the office!

It bounced to an' fro, forward and back, side to side, and very quickly did things become a mess. Her framed portraits, shelved knickknacks, and the office supplies on her desktop, everything so very quickly became a mess! She yelped in alarm as the ball bounced her way, causing her to shield herself with her large angelic wings. The ball continued to bounce in chaotic disarray throughout the office, that Celestia furrowed her brows and concentrated her telekinetic aura to catch the ball.

She felt her aura enshroud the ball, only for a strange sensation in her head to break her concentration, preventing her telekinesis from stopping the ball.... whichthen began bouncing specifically onto her!

"Oh! Augh! Stop! Eek!" Celestia got bounced in the face, onto her withers, her rump, until she used her wings as shields yet again. That didn't stop the ball however, as it continued to assault her in its rubbery rage.
"Alright, that's enough!"

Celestia again focused, but this time she cast a generic counterspell to dispel whatever enchantment was driving this ball.

Big mistake.

To her disappointment-turned horror, the counterspell not only failed, but now the ball began to multiply! Every two or three bounces, it split into another ball, and every two or three more bounces those balls split into more balls! Very quickly, the balls began to flood her office, that Celestia cried out in alarm as she opened the door and ran out, only to flinch as she realized, "I didn't close it!"

To her growing anxiety, the balls began to flood out into the hallways, and there were already faculty members and older students walking by.

"Princess Celestia, what in Faust's name is going on here?!" exclaimed Top Marks, one of the school's best lecturers, wearing a sweater vest and tie, but no pants as he avoided the balls bouncing his way.

Celestia tried to explain, "I have no earthly idea, there was this ball-"

"I've got it!" one of the students walking by hurried forward and Celestia sensed the teenage mare casting a counterspell.

"NO!!!" Celestia tried to stop her, but it was too late.

The balls reacted to the student's counterspell just as the first had with Celestia's. The magic of the counterspell washed over them, but instead of stopping them, the balls multiplied even faster! They began to fill the hallways, spreading down both directions like a river of red rubber. The growing racket of rubbery bounces caused curious students and teachers to step out of their classrooms to see what was going on, and immediately shouts of alarm, confusion, and even excitement echoed throughout the halls.

"DON'T USE TELEKINESIS OR DISPELLING THEIR MAGIC!" Celestia shouted, "IT JUST MAKES IT WORSE!!"

Unfortunately there was too much chaos for everypony to hear her. Her patience running thin, Celestia furrowed her brows and concentrated her magic, speaking lowly, "This has gone far enough..."

Aiming towards soem balls where nopony would get caught in the blast, Celestia unleashed a spell meant to destroy out-of-control magical objects while leaving living creatures unharmed. It spread like a wave throughout the hall, but instead of destroying the balls, they all froze where they were when the spell hit them, even in mid-air. Everypony looked on in confused awe at the situation, which appeared as though time had just paused, and Celestia was confused that her spell hadn't destroyed all these balls... when one by one, the balls each began to vibrate.

As each abll gave off a vibration, a foreboding sense of dread filled the hall, and was felt by everypony, especially Celestia as those vibrating balls began to intensify!

"TAKE COVER!!!" she yelled as she cast a shield spell around herself and some nearby students while others dove into classrooms or hid behind any furniture or curtaisn they could find before...

*KABLOOSH/KABLAM/KASPLASH/KABLOOF...*

The balls all exploded but rather than cause wanton destruction, they each blew up into... all kinds of things! Some blew up into sticky drippy slime, some burst into stink hazes, some burst into confetti, some exploded into loud but harmless firecrackers, others turned into large bubbles that popped and coated anything around them with super-slippery fluid, and some went further than that.

As students and faculty members tried to avoid all these messes, more balls continued to explode. But some of them had a direct effect on anypony too close. A couple teachers got turned into an ostrich and a panda, a young colt suddenly grew so large he nearly blocked the whole hallway where he was, a teenage student's mane suddenly grew and writhed, making her look like the comic book villain Mane-iac, another teenage student cried out in alarm as his hooves started scuttling about as though he were dancing a jig and he couldn't stop himself, and even Twilight had been caught in the madness as Celestia saw her student now had a mane that looked like a clown's rainbow afro wig.

"Princess! What's going on?!" Twilight called to her teacher, looking afraid.

Celestia had no answers, no idea what to do, and it appeared that even though the balls were exploding, some were still multiplying and some kind of chain reaction continued these explosions with random magical effects. This had grown beyond all control, leaving her no choice, "EVACUATE THE SCHOOL!!!"

Thankfully, the school was prepared for an emergency evacuation via a mass-teleportation to transport everypony outside to the front of the school though not everypony had escaped being altered or changed some way. Celestia even found her counterspell unable to undo the magical changes wrought upon these ponies, and from the street, everypony could only watch as even from outside they heard the balls continue to multiply, spread throughout the school, and explode with random magical effects.

Strangely though, none of the balls seemed to leave the school interior, so that was a blessing in disguise. Still, Celestia knew all that unbridled chaos inside inside her school was going to make mess after mess, and who knew how long it would take to clean it up or dispel all these magical effects on everypony?!

All day and into the night, the madness inside continued. Faculty members and even Royal Guards volunteered to go inside to restore order and put a stop to this insanity, but Celestia declined, citing her own magic had been unable to undo the pandemonium, and any magical interference might make this worse or perhaps unleash these magic balls out onto Canterlot itself. She'd sent the students home, telling them that school was closed until further notice. While some of the students were elated, others were afraid and unhappy, especially the students who'd been magically altered and nopony had been able to restore them to normal.

They were all given escorts home while Celestia, her staff, and her guards tried to determine a solution, even into the late hours.

Then, however, the noises and magical explosions inside the school... it all just stopped.

The following silence was thick with suspense, everypony on the alert in case there was yet still some magical mayhem lying in wait... but as Celestia led them inside to investigate, nothing happened. The inside of the school however... was a disaster's area. Slime, lingering fogs that smelled like farts, slippery fluid, confetti, fake webs like one would use for Nightmare Night, streamers, balloons, messes everywhere! There were no more balls however, which was a relief to Celestia, when a thought crossed her mind and she asked, "Could somepony tell me what time it is? Is it still April Foal's Day?"

"Uh... no, Your Highness," answered a guard. "As a matter of fact, I think this whole entire fiasco ended with April Foal's Day. It's just after midnight."

Celestia narrowed her eyes in incensed fury as she began to suspect who was behind this...

In his room, a little colt was laughing his head off. Every so often he paused between laughs to catch his breath but then almost instantly he'd remember the results of his, get the giggles, which would suddenly grow into gasping belly-laughs. It had exceeded all his expectations, he wasn't even entirely sure if it would have worked, but he never thought it would go so far as to force everypony out of the school for the rest of April Foal's Day!

Finally, he calmed down, his sides aching from laughing for so long and so hard, and as he panted and laid on his bed, he couldn't help but brag to himself, "Midnight Blaze, you are a capitol G genius!"

"And why is that, exactly?"

"YOW!" Midnight twisted around on his bed, getting tangled in his covered to the point that he fell off in a lame 'ow', before he wriggled free... and found himself looking at a very familiar pair of hoofboots, and slowly gazed up to see the displeased look on his guardian's face towering above him with a raised brow.
"Uh... Princess! Wh-wh-what brings you by so late at night?"

Princess Celestia regarded her ward, a 12 year-old unicorn colt with a sapphire blue coat, black mane with a dark blue highlight, turquoise eyes, and his cutie-mark was a pale white-blue crescent moon facing upwards, surrounding a five point star that was surrounded by five white twinkles.

A cutie-mark he'd earned not longer after Twilight had earned her own.

"Well, you are my ward, after all," Celestia played it cool, like nothing was wrong, "and considering I didn't see coat nor mane of you all day, I felt it was my parental duty to check up on you, see that you're well."

Freeing himself of his blanket and hopping back into bed, Midnight sat down, looking a little fidgety, as he cleared his throat, and said, "I'm fine! I... Well, I, uh, had a... a new spell I wanted to practice! Yeah, and I wanted to try it out before my first class and..."

He noticed the look on Celestia's face that warned him that he was just digging himself deeper, "...and you're not buying this, are you?"

"How did you do it?" Celestia responded flatly.

"How did I do what?" retorted Midnight, looking shifty-eyed.

"Don't play around with me, young stallion," warned Celestia, an edge in her voice, "I know that you're responsible for what happened at the school today!"

"I didn't do anything," Midnight crossed his forelegs, "I was just practicing a new spell. Nothing to do with balls or weird magical explosio- !!"

Midnight flinched as he quickly covered his mouth and looked at Celestia from the corners of his eyes, seeing her narrow her ow.

"I didn't mention balls or explosions..." she deadpanned.

"Well, I.... I was there, but I saw what was happening!" Midnight reasoned, "I saw all those balls multiplying, making weird magic-"

"I already checked with your teachers, Midnight," Celestia cut him off, "You didn't attend any of your classes prior to the incident."

For a long moment, Midnight said nothing, knowing it wasn't helping his case. But it appeared there was no point arguing it anymore.
"Fine... you caught me."

"Why?" Celestia demanded.

"It's a little late to say this, but April Foals," Midnight shrugged with a smug look.

"Do you realize the damages you've caused? The harm you could've caused with because of this little plot?!" Celestia demanded, only for Midnight to stifle a giggle and fail miserably. "This is amusing to you?!"

"N-no, not tha-ha-hat!" Midnight laughed before explained, "You-you-hoo-hoo said... plot!"

Celestia glared at her ward, angered by his childish behavior, "The ponies who were affected by this?! Even with our best mages and cleanup crew, it's going to take days, maybe even weeks, to clean up the school!

"The students and teachers will be unable to study and work, everypony will get behind in their studies, and this is just a prank to you?!"

"I thought you liked pranks!" Midnight scoffed, "You've always liked it when a student did an amazing prank on April Foals!"

"When the prank doesn't make a mess, cause damage, or scare or disrupt the students and the faculty!" clarified Celestia, "Parents are going to file complaint after complaint demanding who was responsible and for somepony to be held accountable!"

"So what?!" Midnight threw up his hooves, sounding angry too. "You're the big, important princess! You can do whatever you want and nopony can stop you!"

"We're not talking about me, young stallion, this is about you," Celestia responded.

"Sure, sure, it's about me," Midnight huffed, "Wow! Can't remember the last time it was about me!"

"What you did could have hurt ponies, Midnight!" scolded Celestia. "I don't know what you did to do all of this, but that kind of magic, used so irresponsibly-"

"That kind of magic is what you constantly tell me to work towards!" yelled Midnight, sounding upset, "Everyday, you tell me to do my best, work hard, study! That's all I ever hear from you!"

"Enough!!" Celestia snapped and the two glared into each other's eyes, neither backing down, until Celestia exhaled. "You are confined to your room and tomorrow, you are going to help clean up the mess you made. Until the school can open its doors again for the students and staff... you're grounded."

She turned to leave when Midnight snapped, "I wish somepony else took me in from the orphanage!"

She paused, feeling her heart hurt from those words... but she didn't look back, and closed the door behind her, leaving Midnight to stew as a tear ran down his face.

The swig of her favorite nectar was delicious as always, but as much as she wished for a little buzz to dull her stress away, Celestia knew she had to get her house in order. Sitting in her private study, she couldn't imagine why Midnight would make a prank that would go this far. Granted nopony had gotten seriously hurt apart from some minor bruises from everypony panicking somewhat during the whole fiasco, there weren't any real injuries to concerned about.

The door opened and she sighed, "I asked that I not be disturbed."

"Well, considering the strong smell of nectar, I say a possibly miserable pony could do with some company."

She turned her chair around and saw it was her niece, Cadance, and nephew, Blueblood. Cadance, like her aunt, was an alicorn pony, but they weren't actually related. The pastel pink alicorn filly was once a pegasus, until she stopped a witch from using an evil magic that would have warped and twisted love into something monstrous, and earned her horn as a princess.

Blueblood on the other hoof was her many-many times great grandnephew, and a unicorn.

"Auntie, are you okay?" Cadance asked as she and her adoptive brother approached their aunt, both of them concerned.
"We heard what happened at your school," Blueblood brought up, "did you find the one behind it?"

"i did," Celestia sighed, "and your little brother has left me with quite a headache."

"Wait... Midnight?!"Blueblood and Cadance shared a look of disbelief before looking at Celestia again, "You're pulling our tails..."

"He confessed," Celestia raised her glass to take another sip, only for Cadance to take it out of her telekinetic grasp, Celestia heaving with annoyance but didn't protest.
"And while I was scolding him, I matched his mystical signature to the magic involved in the prank. Midnight did it."

"Why?" Cadance was so bewildered, "He's such a nice young colt, quiet and keeps to himself maybe, but-"

"I don't know, he was being so-so... childish!" Celestia griped as she held her head up with her hoof, her foreleg resting on the armrest of her chair.

"Auntie... he is a child," Blueblood pointed out.
"And I think you've forgotten that," added Cadance, "Ever since he was seven, you've pushed him to study and learn, hardly given him time to just be a foal, to enjoy his childhood."
"Which, I'll attest to, is not a fun way to grow up," agreed Blueblood. "I understand what's expected of me, but you are grooming me to be a Prince of Canterlot. What exactly are you grooming Midnight to be other than a skilled and learned mage?"

Celestia raised her hoof and opened her mouth to answer... only to exhale, as realization washed over her. What was she preparing Midnight for? Other than to be prepared for his future, she didn't really know. In retrospect, that was a rather glaring hole in her plans for Midnight, except she didn't truly have plans for Midnight!

She could recall the day the matron of the local orphanage had sent word to her court, about a unicorn toddler in her care displaying magic far too advanced and frequently for it to be occasional magic surges like baby unicorns tend to have. Celestia made it a point not to visit orphanages too much, because it always broke her heart to see her littlest ponies without families of their own to love them and raise them, and if she didn't guard her heart she'd wind up emptying the orphanages and taking all these little ones in.

But the matron had been insistent on this matter, so Celestia had gone to see this little foal with her own eyes.

What she had seen was a bright and bubbly foal, who was able to use telekinesis, teleportation, and instead of merely illuminating his horn he conjured little orbs of soft glowing light, similar to the moon. And he'd been well past the age for it to have been occasional magic surges for infant unicorns. In this little colt, Celestia had seen potential, and the way those big turquoise eyes first looked into hers, that sweet and innocent smile... He'd melted her heart and adopted him straight away.

But royal duties didn't wait for anything, and though Celestia had tried to make time with her ward in the first few years she'd brought him home, she became more and more adamant in his education and enrolled him into her magic school once he was old enough.

Slumping into her chair, in a rather un-princessly way, Celestia let out a sputtering exhale and conceded, "You have a point..."

"Aunt Celestia, what exactly did Midnight do?" asked Cadance. "All Bluey and I heard about it was that it involved... bouncy balls?"

The mere mention of those rampaging rubbery riffraff made Celestia shudder before she explained the entire incident, starting from the first ball she found in her office, to how the tsunami of multiplying balls burst and exploded with a myriad of magical effects, and ended with all the balls vanishing at the midnight hour, and the effects they'd had on the students and faculty dispelling as well.

"...it was the fact that the incident ended at midnight is what first led me to suspect Midnight himself," she wrapped it up.

She noticed the looks of awe on her niece and nephew's faces as they shared said look and Blueblood uttered, "That... sounds... like a work of art!"

"A work of art?!" echoed Celestia, sitting up, "That whole prank made a mess of the entire school that I had to shut it down until further notice!"

"Well, what Blue means, Aunt Celestia," Cadance spoke up, "isn't the prank itself, but the magic behind it!"

"What do you mean?" Celestia put her hooves on her flanks, an expectant look in her eyes.

"Well, consider it all, Auntie," Blueblood noted, "the ball avoided physical contact, you couldn't catch it with your telekinesis, it began to multiply in response to your attempt to dispel the magic used to ensorcell it, and when you tried to destroy them, the balls reacted with explosions that yielded all sorts of magical effects!"

"I've never heard of such elaborate enchantments!" Cadance added.

Hearing their words, Celestia slowly began to realize that they were right! In retrospect, Midnight's prank, the magic involved, such elaborate enchantments... it was a masterpiece! Short of resorting to her alicorn magic, even she had been unable to dispel the prank and prevent the whole thing from happening.

A work of such enchantment that could defy even me... Celestia thought before she sighed and said aloud, "I suppose I've been too hard on him, haven't given him what he truly needs..."

Cadance and Blueblood shared a concerned look before they each stepped up to their aunt's sides and nuzzled up to her, and she spread her wings to hold them close, grateful for their comfort. Before long, she cleared her throat and stood up from her chair, "I have to go talk to him."

"Maybe you should wait until morning, Aunt Celestia," suggested Cadance.
"Yes, Midnight may still be... well, not in a talkative mood," agreed Blueblood.

"...Maybe you're right," Celestia nodded, "but at the very least, I would like to check on him."

Approaching her ward's bedroom door, Celestia felt so conflicted. On one hoof, she hoped midnight was still awake, to have the excuse to talk to him despite what had recently transpired between them. On the other... Taking a deep breath, she softly knocked on his door, gently calling, "Midnight? Are you still awake, dear?"

...

...

...

Perhaps he did go to sleep, she thought, but she still wished to check on him.

Very carefully, she magic'd the door open, seeing it was dim, a ray of moonlight from the almost-closed curtains providing only the barest illumination. She flicked the lightswitch, expecting to see her ward lying in bed... only to find it empty!

"Midnight...?!" she uttered in alarm, when her eyes noticed a folded piece of paper set on the pillow.

She levitated it up to her eyes, unfolded the paper, and what she saw immediately broke her heart. There were dots that looked like they might have come from... tears, and only one word, written big and large and capitalized and underlined.

GOODBYE

Realizing what this meant, Celestia looked around the room, and realized some things were missing! Midnight's saddlebags, his books, his cloak, and even his Jar of Bits he used to save his allowance!

"No...!" She hurried out into the halls, crying out, "GUARDS!! EMERGENCY!!!"

The guards scurried in slight alarm to answer their princess's call, and once all nearby guards stood before her, Celestia explained, "My ward, Midnight Blaze, is missing! I believe he's run away! Lock down the castle, search everywhere! I want him brought to me safe and sound."

"Yes, Princess!" The guards all saluted and hurried off to find the missing colt.

Left alone, Celestia finally allowed the tears to flow. She looked at the note again, that one word stabbing into her heart, those tear stains filling her with shame. She collapsed onto the floor as she began to cry, "What have I done? What. Have I. Done...?"

Author's Note

This is an alternate universe from my main story, and so stars an alternate version of my OC Midnight Blaze and all the other characters