Twilight yawned tiredly as her alarm blared. She reached over and swatted at air.
Her eyes immediately opened and she looked over, finding the clock was still in its original place
Or was it?
Twilight looked confused as she used her magic to turn it off and climbed out of bed, where she then immediately bumped into her nightstand. She looked even more confused and moved away, bumping into her bed. There was no way she was this ti-
Twilight gasped as she looked around. Everything was wrong! She flew over to her desk and pulled the drawer. Scrolls were replaced with quills and quills were where inkwells were supposed to go!
Her head snapped over to her mirror and she flew over to that. It was upside down and all the pictures were switched around! Looking back to her bed, she knew she was viewing it at a different angle from yesterday. She should know, she spent hours figuring just the perfect angle to view her bed from her mirror!
Twilight was pulled from her thoughts as she heard Spike scream her name from his room. She immediately took flight and raced down the hallway, bursting into his room. “Spike? What’s wrong?”
Her eyes widened when she saw the entirety of Spike's room was glued to the ceiling, Spike himself crumpled in a ball after seemingly falling out of his bed. “Someone glued everything to the ceiling!” Spike stood up, looking up at the ceiling in awe and annoyance.
“And you slept through that?” Twilight asked incredulously.
“I’m a heavy sleeper.” Spike offered lamely, shrugging his shoulders.
“If it's any consolation, somepony pranked me too last night.” Twilight said, walking up next to him. “They moved my stuff around and probably pushed everything a few inches in a different direction.”
Spike stared at her silently. “Oh no?”
“You wouldn’t get it!” Twilight huffed indignantly. “You’re not a girl.”
“Yeah, cause every girl out there is hyper organized like you. Have you ever even seen Rainbow Dash’s-” Both Spikes and Twilight's eyes widened in realization and they looked at eachother.
“Rainbow Dash!” They said at the same time.
“I trust that mare with a key for emergencies and this is what she uses it for?” Twilight growled.
“I just want to know what glue she used. I could really use it for my own pranks.” Twilight shot Spike a disapproving look, eliciting a nervous chuckle from the dragon. “Sorry.”
“Well, that’s the last time I trust her with any key, I’m going to demand she give it back. If she can’t be trusted to be a mature adult with it, then she doesn’t-”
“Rainbow Dash!”
Twilight and Spike looked at each other with confusion. “Was that-?”
“Rainbow Dash! Yah get yer sorry flank out here!”
“Yeah, that’s her.” Twilight took to the air and flew the rest of the way, landing besides Applejack. “Applejack? What are-?”
“Ah’m giving that no good Pegasus what for!” Applejack interrupted. “She thought it’d be hilarious to send me and my mattress floating in the lake! Now Ah have to get a whole new mattress and Ah want her to pay for it!”
Twilight opened her mouth to respond but was beaten to the punch by a Rarity. “Did she prank the two of you as well?”
Everyone looked over and recoiled when they saw Rarity: her hair looked like it was put through a blender, a fake mustache was drawn onto her face, and she had incredibly heavy blush and makeup on. “Yes, I know I look like a fright. Believe me, I wouldn’t be out and about where everypony could see, but nothing I did worked and I was hoping she could help clean everything.”
“Even yer makeup?”
“Believe it or not, I looked like a clown before, this is the least amount of makeup I’ve worn all day.”
“Well I for one liked her prank!” Everyone looked over to see Pinkie Pie bouncing happily towards them, baby powder coating her body and wafting off her each time she jumped. “She covered my bed in the twins baby powder! That was hilarious!” She skidded to a halt. “I look like a ghost!” She stood on her hind legs and waved her front legs wildly. “Spooookyyyyyy.”
“She seriously spent all night pranking each of us?” Rarity huffed. “Where’s Fluttershy? I have a feeling Rainbow did something to her too.”
“Um, right here.” Everyone looked over to see Fluttershy Landing near them. “She Uh… she put my hoof in a bowl of water in the middle of the night.”
“That’s it?” Spike crossed his arms. “That doesn’t sound so b-” He stopped mid sentence in realization. “Oh…”
“Yeah…” Fluttershy nodded in an embarrassed manner.
“That pony has gone too far.” Twilight huffed. “Pranking a friend is one thing, but you can’t break into your friends' houses in the middle of the night to do it.”
Everyone gathered nodded and murmured in agreement. “Oh, hey guys!” They looked up when they heard Rainbow Dash's voice, seeing her flying down to meet them. “Surprised you’re all here, what’s up?” She landed a few feet from the group and snickered at Rarity. “Loving the new look Rares, is it some Manehatten fashion I don’t get?” Rainbow's smile faded when everyone frowned or glared at her (or in Pinkie's case made funny faces). “What?”
“Rainbow... What did you do last night?” Twilight asked.
“Last night? Uh, well, I fed Tank, exercised a little, then read the new Daring Doo book till I passed out.”
“You’re sure that you didn’t do anything else?”
“Yeah.” Rainbow looked at the group with confusion. “What’s going on?”
“Ah’ll tell yah what’s going on!” Applejack marched right up to Rainbow Dash who took a step back. “Yah broke into each of our homes to prank us! Yah crossed a line Dash!”
“Wha- broke into your homes?” Rainbow held up her hooves defensively. “Look, I know I can take things a little too far with my pranks and jokes, but I would never betray your trust like that. If I was going to do something like that, I’d get help from the inside.” Rainbow awkwardly cleared her throat at the disapproving looks the last part of her sentence earned her.
“If you didn’t do it, then who did?” Rarity asked disbelievingly.
“Yeah! I need to know so I can learn how to do the same!” Pinkie closed the distance between her and Rainbow, getting uncomfortably close before Twilight pulled her away.
“I mean, I don’t know.” Rainbow shrugged. “Discord?”
“Dash.” Fluttershy frowned in disapproval.
“You know what he’s like! He’s the only one who’d be able to break into our homes and do it just to prank us.”
Twilight hummed. “She has a point, Discord isn’t one for boundaries…” Twilight was quiet as she thought it over. “Alright, we’ll summon him here and see if he has anything to say.”
Everyone else looked unsure but gathered around in a circle, Spike standing off to the side. Twilight closed her eyes and all of them began floating into the air. A rainbow began swirling around them as Twilight opened her eyes to reveal they were glowing. The rainbow swirled around before striking the ground, Discord appearing as the rainbow dissipated, a bowl of What was presumably cereal in his hands.
“Ah, Twilight.” Discord took a bite from his cereal with a fork, each bite he took making a new random sound. “You’re lucky I haven’t started the day yet, otherwise I’d have berated you for summoning me without notice.”
“Lucky me.” Twilight said sarcastically, taking a step forward. “Discord, somepony broke into all of our houses last night and pranked us. Are you responsible for it?”
Discord hummed in thought, opening up his cranium to scratch his brain with his fork. “Can’t say I did.” He closed his cranium. “If I was responsible then I may have forgotten. That’s the curse of being a creature of chaos, it’s from one whim to another. If you’d like, I can investigate to see if I left any clues.”
“Wouldn’t you just destroy the evidence if you were guilty?” Spike pointed out.
“Such slander!” Discord said indignantly. “I am reformed! I would never do something so underhanded! See?” He pointed at the halo that appeared over his head. “If It makes you feel any better…” Discord cleared his throat. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Discord punctuated his point by literally pulling his heart out of his chest and crossing it, then smashing a cupcake into his eye, snapping his fingers so the cupcake disappeared. “I won’t destroy any evidence against me, real or imagined.”
Everyone gathered exchanged looks with each other. “Alright, fine. We’ll trust you Just this once.” Twilight called out. “Spikes room is probably the most ‘chaotic’ prank, you can start there.”
“You’re the boss, boss.” Discord saluted and snapped his fingers, everyone disappearing in a flash.
Author's Note
Hello readers, thank you for taking the time to read this rushed little story.
Which isn’t entirely my fault. I learned about the contest a few days ago and I’ve been crazy busy with work. Hopefully it’s passable enough.
I was originally going to start this by having the ghost individually prank the Mane 6, but I thought it was a boring start and I needed to cut stuff down to meet the deadline.
I was also going to have each of the Mane 6s pranks be something relating to their character, but I wasn’t clever enough to come up with something for each of them.
I’m sure Twilight would be the kind of pony who’d notice everything is slightly out of place. I’ve also heard of people moving furniture a few inches in a direction and confusion someone.
I’m also pretty sure Dash is incredibly unorganized, she just seems like the type.
I felt Discord would be the next obvious suspect for the pranks and the only one who’d figure out it was a ghost quickly.
A flash of light ripped through Spike's room, the group appearing in its wake. Discord looked around and scoffed. “Yep, I’m innocent.”
“You can’t just-”
“This is far too tame and boring to be my work.” Discord shook his head. “Either I’m losing my touch or I was sane for once in my life.”
“Regardless, can you investigate anyway? Perhaps that’s why you forgot, it was too tame for you.” Twilight reasoned.
“Hm, good point.” Discord snapped his fingers and was suddenly dressed in a detective outfit, flying up into the air and pulling out a comically large magnifying glass.
He darted about the room for a good minute, looking over every detail of the room. Finally, he poked his finger into the ‘glue’ and looked at it through his magnifying glass. “Ah!” He disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in the middle of the group. “Bad news, I’m not responsible. Good news though is that I know who it is. Or rather, what is.”
“What it is?” Applejack tilted her head.
“This is ectoplasm.” Discord held a canister full of shimmering goo. “Ghosts leave it whenever they phase through an object, I’m willing to bet you’ll find an assortment of ectoplasm on the walls or doorways of your home. This ghost was pretty clever to use it as glue.”
“A ghost?” Rarity backed up in surprise. “Why in Equestria would a ghost prank all of us?”
“Yeah! And I thought ghosts couldn’t interact with anything.” Rainbow flew up to meet Discord’s gaze. “Not like this anyway.”
“They can, depending on the circumstances, though ghosts like that are far more aggressive. I’d sooner believe a Fair Folk was responsible then a ghost, they’re not usually one for pranks. I’m willing to bet that some sort of Necromancy was used to bring this ghost from its afterlife and gave it enough power to interact with the physical world.”
“Why would anypony go through all that trouble?” Fluttershy asked as she studied the ectoplasm.
“Because it’s funny, duh!” Pinkie Pie answered, a waft of baby powder falling off of her as she jumped.
“We’ll have to ask them directly, cause we’re catching this thing.” Twilight said confidently as she walked up to Discord. “This ghost isn’t going to stop right? So we have to catch it and send it back home.”
“That will be quite difficult, Twilight.” Discord warned. “Even if this ghost is temporal enough to interact with the living world, it still won’t be easy to catch. Magic is the only reliable thing that can hold onto a ghost, you’re the only one who will be able to send it back home with a spell, and I need to set up a holding circle to keep it in place while you do.”
“I can hold onto it.” Rarity offered. “I’m the only other pony here who can use magic.”
“You’re sure?” Discord asked in an serious tone. “It won’t be easy, ghosts are hard to hold onto: they can fly, phase through objects, and don’t operate the same way a living person does, they’ll pull you along if you hold onto them.”
Rarity looked unsure but nodded. “Y-yes, a simple ghost is no match for a proper lady.”
“Good.” Discord turned to Twilight. “You all figure out a plan, I’ll get the necessary materials to create the holding circle.”
“We will.” Twilight nodded. “Good luck Discord.”
Discord scoffed. “I really wish you wouldn’t say that. You have any ideas how many ladders I have to walk under now?” He snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of light.
Hours had passed and night had descended over Ponyville, a certain incorporeal white earth pony poking her head through Twilight front doors. She had visited each of the Mane Sixes homes and found that none of them were in bed. It just wasn't as fun to mess with them if they weren't there.
She figured that they were having a sleepover at Twilight's castle, perhaps to prove that none of them were the perpetrator for last night's events.
She giggled to herself as she thought of what she was going to do. It would be hilarious as they tried to figure out who managed to prank them all in their sleep and not leave a trace, perhaps they might even think it was one of them who was responsible.
She stopped when the lights suddenly came on, temporarily blinding her, as Applejack jumped out and lassoed her.
The ghost was pulled downwards but managed to phase through the lasso, immediately flying higher to escape the lasso's reach.
"Cannon ball!" The ghost looked up to see Pinkie Pie falling from the sky, crashing into her and bringing her down a few feet. Pinkie Pie phased through the ghost as well and ended up covered in ectoplasm, giggling all the while.
The ghost didn't have enough to to escape as she was surrounded in a blue aura. She strained against it and tried to pull away, looking down to find Rarity's horn glowing. "I've got her!"
The ghost smirked and began flying into the castle, Rarity yelping as she was dragged along. She tried desperately to keep the ghost in place and not let her phase through a wall.
The rest of Rarity's friends ran behind her, Applejack twirling her lasso while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew after the ghost.
Rainbow reached her first and tried punching her, her hoof briefly striking her but quickly phasing through the ghost and covering Rainbow Dash's hoof in ectoplasm.
Rainbow grimaced but moved to wrap her arms around the ghost, briefly bringing her under control before phasing through her again.
This did give Rarity enough respite to gain control and bring the ghost down to the ground. The Mane Six dog piled on the ghost, Applejack futily trying to hogtie her before the ghost disappeared into the ground, reappearing a few feet away.
Rarity just barely managed to encase the ghost in her magic before they took off, Pinkie Pie holding onto Rarity as they flew through Twilight's castle with a huge smile while Rarity screamed.
After zipping around for a few minutes, Rarity saw they were about to pass the library. Using all the strength she could muster, Rarity threw the ghost to the side and right through the open doors.
The ghost turned and was about to fly away, jerking suddenly when her tail was grabbed by an eagle claw. “Not so fast.” Discord said as he pulled the ghost into a ritualistic circle. She immediately flew forward but bounced back against an unseen barrier, flying around to find a way out.
She finally stopped when she realized she couldn’t get out and stared as the rest of the group made their way into the library, giggling lightly. “You got me! I can’t believe you’d catch onto me so soon or manage to capture me so fast! I was thinking I’d get away with this for a week at least.”
“We’re just full of surprises.” Twilight walked over while levitating a book. “Now, who are you?”
“My name’s Willow Trail.” She flashed the group a smile. “Sorry about the pranks, I just couldn’t resist! It isn’t as fun in the hereafter. I’d tell you about it, but it’s against the rules to talk to the living about the afterlife.”
“And how did you get here?” Fluttershy asked. “Did they let you go to the living world for a few days?”
“Of course not silly! Somepony who lives here, I think her name is Starlight or something, was casting spells with her friend the other night. I think they called it a ‘spell off’ and Starlight lost when she casted the spell that brought me here. Apparently they thought it didn’t do anything and I was too distracted to prove otherwise.” Everyone murmured and groaned at the reveal that Starlight was responsible.
“‘Course it was Starlight.” Applejack turned to Twilight. “Yah really need to teach that girl not to use magic so carelessly, next she’ll raise a zombie.”
“Trust me, I’m already planning my lesson about proper magic use with her and Trixie. I’ll ambush her when she gets back from her little trip and desperately wants to go to bed, that seems like a proper punishment.” Twilight nodded her head. “Now, let's send this prankster back home.”
“Hold up, before you send her back, I want one thing answered.” Rainbow Dash took to the air and hovered in front of Willow Trail. “Why did you skip me? Were you trying to frame me for what you did?”
“Skip you? I didn’t skip you, you were the second pony I visited.”
“Wait what?” Rainbow Dash looked worried. “What do you… what did you do!?”
“It wouldn’t be much of a prank if I told you now, would it?” Willow Trail giggled. “Alright, you won, you can send me back. I’m sure they’re looking for me anyway.”
“Well, if you insist.” Twilight looked down at the book and began chanting, her horn beginning to glow.
“Oh and Discord.” Willow turned to Discord. “Try not to turn the ground into pudding again, ok? It was only funny the first time.”
“It’s funny every time, it’s just none of you can appreciate art.” Discord stuck his tongue out which Willow returned, the circle glowing brightly as Twilight chanted and whisking Willow away.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief and stared at the now vacant circle. “Well… at least she was nice?” Fluttershy offered with a smile.
“Ah guess.” Applejack turned to leave. “Ah dunno about the rest of yah, but Ah’m going home. Ah’ve had my fill of bubbly prankster ghosts.”
The others murmured in agreement and turned to leave, saying their goodbyes to Twilight as Discord began clearing the circle away. “You seriously turned the afterlife’s ground into pudding?” Twilight turned to Discord.
“I turned her afterlife’s ground into pudding.” Discord corrected. “What greater chaos is there then to mess with the most sacred places in the universe? Especially to show up those stuffy, snobbish gods.” Discord said with a devious chuckle. “Well, this has been fun. Let’s summon an army of skeletons next time.” Discord grabbed the air and zipped open a tear in reality, his home on the other side. “Be seeing you.” He saluted before jumping in, the tear in reality zipping back up.
Twilight sighed and slammed the book closed, placing it on the table as she blew the candles out and trotted off to her room.
“Uh, Twilight?” Spike's voice called out, stopping Twilight right as she opened her door.
“Yeah?” She turned to look at him.
“My rooms still, you know… upside down?” He awkwardly gestured towards his room with his thumb, eliciting an annoyed groan from Twilight.
“Oh… yeah.” Twilight turned and walked towards Spike. “Hope you like not sleeping, it isn’t easy to clean ectoplasm.”
“We’re getting Starlight back for this, right?”
“Most definitely.” She walked into Spikes room. “She’ll never see it coming.” Twilight said with an evil grin on her face
Author's Note
I imagine Discord might have more imaginative pranks and that’s why he’d declare himself guilty. He would take pride in whatever he did and recognize his own work.
I also know the Ectoplasm I wrote isn’t exactly what ‘real” ectoplasm is, but I like Ghostbusters idea of ectoplasm then the ‘real’ thing.
Also gave a good excuse to have Spikes room upside down.
Discord naming the Fair Folk is mostly a reference to how often fairies and the like are often said to be pranksters or play tricks on humans in folklore. Equestria has Breezies, stuff like Fairies and Brownies shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
And to those wondering why Discord didn’t just snap the materials needed for the holding circle... that would make sense, and what fun is there in making sense?
I do apologize for calling Willow ‘the ghost’ for half the chapter, but I didn’t reveal her name yet.
I wanted Willow to be bubbly and sweet to offset her impish nature. Thought that might make her more likeabke after her pranks. She isn’t malicious,just bored and had the opportunity of a lifetime.
Starlight is also known to misuse magic, so I could totally see her and Trixie having a magic off and accidentally raising the dead. That seems in character.
I also decided to have Trixie and Starlight go on a little trip so she isn’t in the story, mostly so I didn’t have to worry about writing her or explain why she isn’t doing anything despite living in the castle
It was hard ending this one, I wasn’t sure how to end it without it feeling like it suddenly stopped. I figured this was a good enough end.
Anyway, thanks for reading my fic! I know it’s not my greatest work, but five days with limited writing time, it could’ve been a lot worse.
