Target Acquired: Tickle Time!

Pinkie Pie and Night Fury both awoke early the next day. As worn out as they were from the tickle play the night before, they were abuzz as bees when the sun arose.

“Hmmm… Say, Fury? How do you propose we do this?” Pinkie questioned, referring to their planned tickle attack on Rainbow Dash. “I mean, I want vengeance on Dashie as much as you do, but I don’t want to be cruel to her.”

“Ah, don’t worry. We won’t.” Fury reassured her, scooting out of the sleeping bag he'd been given. “Besides, I thought out everything already. I have an entire planning board back home, so I've had this in the works for a while. Every possibility is at my claws’ grasp, and I know exactly how to do it. Fluttershy's gonna help too, so she'll be a big help too.”

“Ooooooh! I like that,” Pinkie said, happily. “I’m gonna go tell her to bring that Phoenix feather that you used on her. I’ll be right back!”

Pinkie was out the door before Fury could even blink. He had so many questions.

“Did she just take off faster than me? And… I never mentioned the Phoenix feather to her. How’d she know about that?” Fury asked himself. He eventually shrugged it off as Pinkie being Pinkie as he got up to start the day. A shower, breakfast jelly doughnut, and teeth brushing session later, Fury was ready to get his plan under way as he got his journal and circled the blue pegasus.

“Target Acquired.”

–

10:30 AM…

Fluttershy and Pinkie had already made it to Cloudsdale thanks to Twilight's balloon and a temporary cloud walking spell for the pink earth pony. They took a bit of a tour around the city to see what was new and even got to see a new rainbow being made. Though one pony was less thrilled than the other as she began to have flashbacks of her bad experience with rainbows due to knowing what they tasted like, oddly enough.

Soon enough, the black cat caught up to them thanks to his falcon form and transformed back to his usual self, not falling through the clouds much to his friends’ shock.

“Wow, Twilight gave you the ability to walk on clouds too!?” Pinkie asked, but she was quickly proven wrong.

“No magic needed, my powers do all the work. My energy is based on electricity, and my power gives off a negative charge compared to the natural positive charge of the cloud’s static electricity. So, think of it as two magnets facing each other with the same poles pointing together.” Fury explained.

Pinkie’s mouth dropped agape, and Fluttershy collapsed in a fit of giggles at Pinkie's astonishment.

“Yeah yeah, it's a whole lot of science gobbledygook that I couldn't bear to explain in full, but I basically can walk on clouds like any other pegasus no problem. Now, I heard on the way up that RD is supposed to be getting back from Wonderbolts drills in a few minutes, so we'll have to be ready for her to show up.” Fury said in a whisper.

His friends saluted, and quickly found hiding places. They’d remain there until Fury gave them the signal.

Rainbow Dash walked into her house, a few minutes later. She’d worked real hard at her training session today, and was reading to relax with a mug of cider and some Daring Do.

“Maybe I should shower first,” She thought. “I did work rather hard, and I am kinda stiff.”

She went and turned on the water and let it get nice and hot, which relaxed her stiff muscles. After she did a thorough cleaning, she went back into her living area, grabbed the book and her cider, and went back to the couch.

“I still can’t believe Egghead got me into this.” Rainbow chuckled to herself.

She wondered if she should go and invite one of her friends over. It did get kinda lonely after a while in her Cloudominium.

Okay, time to get closer to her. Better mind my words. She may be laid back, but she can be just as perceptive as she is fast.
Fury thought to himself. He signaled Pinkie to do her thing and she went about her part of the plan

“Hiyah, Rainbow!” Pinkie cried, coming out from the lampshade next to her friend.

“Gyah!” Rainbow screamed, as she jumped back. With an amused smile, she shook her head at her friend’s antics. “Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie. You’re so random.”

Rainbow patted the empty space next to her on the couch, and her friend happily obliged.

“What’ve you been up to lately? I’m sorry I haven’t been around for a pranking spree. Training’s been getting tougher and longer,” Rainbow admitted.

“Long story,” Pinkie said, before becoming serious. “And, speaking of pranks…”

She narrowed her eyebrows, which made Rainbow start to become worried.

“I heard about the one you pulled on Night Fury recently. That wasn’t very nice,” the pink pony said, a tinge of anger in her voice. “And I think it’s high time you paid up!”

“Oh come on, Pinkie. All I did was replace his shampoo with Pink dye. It didn't hurt him at all.” Rainbow defended.

“Maybe not physically, but emotionally, he was crushed! Ponies were calling him ‘Bubblegum’ for a week!” Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “How’d you like it if I convinced the town to refer to you as ‘Crash’ again?”

Rainbow shivered when she heard that name. She hated it, and, as angry as she was at Pinkie for bringing it up again, she knew her friend was serious about that particular threat.

“Uh… hehe… you’ve got a point there, Pinkie.” Rainbow chuckled, nervously. “But… how do you propose I make it up to him? You know I tend to have a big ego.”

“I say, since you embarrassed him, you let him embarrass you,” Pinkie stated plainly. “Does that seem fair?”

Rainbow hesitated for a minute before another voice startled her.

“It does to me,” Fluttershy said, coming around a corner. Her hooves crossed as she cast an angry glare at her friend.

Rainbow now realized that she was outnumbered. So she hung her head and nodded her approval.

“Good,” Fluttershy said, with an evil smile. “And we know just the way to do it. Come with us.”

Rainbow reluctantly followed her friends up to her room. Fluttershy instructed her to lie down on her back, and she did. She grimaced at this position they had here in, it made her feel vulnerable.

“Do you have those cuffs, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked, making Rainbow’s eyes widen in fear.

“I sure do.” Pinkie said, reaching into her mane and pulling out two pairs of hoof-cuffs and a pair of wing-cuffs. They quickly incapacitated their flying friend on her own bed. Rainbow squirmed around, trying everything she could think of to get loose. But, to her dismay, nothing worked.

“Now we’re going to bring Night Fury in. And you will be at his mercy. Understand?” Pinkie stated, to which Rainbow just nodded her head, trying to prepare herself for what was coming to her.

No time was wasted as the black cat walked in calmly and quietly.

“Well well well, looks like I've caught an over confident fly in my web. And what a lucky little spider I am.” Fury said sinisterly.

“C’mon, Night Fury,” Rainbow attempted to bargain. “We can be reasonable with this, can’t we? We’re friends after all, right?”

“We are…” Fury admitted, although he didn’t falter. “But, you should’ve known your embarrassing me would come back to bite you. You of all ponies should know what karma feels like, yes?”

Rainbow nodded, a blush appearing on her cheeks. But she didn’t start panicking until Fury revealed his secret weapon: the Phoenix feather he’d used on Fluttershy. The yellow mare made an evil smirk when she saw the feather, remembering how much it tickled her.

“So, this is how this is gonna go down. I'm gonna use this little feather to tickle you. But there's a little special rule. The only way you can get out of this situation is if you admit defeat by apologizing for the pranks. No negotiation, no change ups, no making deals that all three of us know you'll cross your feathers on. Just a simple apology, just like that.” Fury explained.

He then began to lightly swish the feather back and forth across Rainbow’s hooves. The Pegasus mare tried clamping her mouth shut to keep from laughing, knowing she wouldn’t hold it for long.

“C’mon, Dashie!” Pinkie cooed. “Laugh for us!”

She then began wiggling her hoof on Rainbow’s hip, which caused her to begin giggling.

“Okay, my turn!” Fluttershy stated, boldly.

She extended her wing and began to quickly rub her feathers up and down Rainbow’s sensitive tummy, finally getting her to laugh.

“GYAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!” Rainbow screamed.

“There it is, now we've got her! Alright girls, give her the works!”

Fluttershy took hold of Rainbow’s forehooves and pulled them above her friend's head, extending her own wings to tickle Rainbow’s wingpits. Pinkie plopped herself on Rainbow’s tummy and began tickling like there was no tomorrow. Fury just continued to play with the feather on her rear hooves. Rainbow writhed and screamed in ticklish agony from her friends’ tactics. She probably could’ve handled one of them tickling her in one area, but this was really breaking her.

“AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! OKAY OKAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAYHHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEH! I’M SOREHEHEHEHEHEHEHE FOHOHOHOHOHOR THE PRAHAHAHAHAHANKHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!” Rainbow finally broke.

“Well, I suppose we can forgive you now. Let ‘er go, girls.” Fury said, ending his tickle assault. Pinkie and Fluttershy pulled away from the Rainbow-maned pegasus and let her breathe. Her mane itself was a mess from all the squirming, her wings wrapped around her body and her legs fully pressed to her body to protect her from another possible attack.

“See, it's all better now that you took back what you did. Pretty easy when you let your ego take the sidelines and give yourself in, huh?” Fury said cheekily, his partners in crime laughing with him.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever!” Rainbow huffed.

“Need a second round?” Pinkie asked, threateningly.

Rainbow’s eyes widened in terror and her already red cheeks deepened in color with a blush. She desperately shook her head “No”.

“Then we suggest you watch your mouth, as much as you keep your pranks in line from now on. Savvy?” Fluttershy continued, to which Rainbow just nodded her head vigorously.

“Good, then you can sleep soundly tonight.” Fury said, cheekily. He pulled out his notebook and crossed out Rainbow’s picture.

“Target Down.” He said confidently.

“So, who's your next target, Fury?” Fluttershy asked.

“Thankfully, this one is closer to ground level. And this one is also gonna need some humbling.” Fury said with a smile.

“Another pony who's giving you some bad vibes?” Pinkie theorized.

“Nope, just a certain pompous drama queen who needs to learn that acting high and mighty will eventually come back to bite her.” Fury said as he exited the cloud house and left for his house to take some extra preparation for his next endeavor.