Pranking the Castle
Dipping the quill into the ink, the feathery pen floated over to the parchment and began to write – but as she watched, the ink started to fade. Blinking in surprise, she noticed that the label on the blue ink bottle was peeling – this was a bottle of invisible ink!
“Oops, wrong ink,” She chuckled to herself, using some simple telekinesis to grab the right bottle of ink this time.
After sending off the message, she slipped off into dreamland... only to wake up and spot the bottle of invisible ink again. Shaking her head, she wondered what had inspired her faithful student to prank her. Then she next wondered – could she prank her student in return?
Doubtful, She thought, taking her seat in the main hall. She's in Ponyville, and I'm in Canterlot. Although...
A smile appeared on her muzzle, as she came up with a plan. Heading towards the royal library, she took a minute to pick up a book. Knowing that her schedule today was empty, she made sure to put the book in her quarters to read after checking at the entrance. Which, after finding and confirming that she did, indeed, have an empty day, return to read the book that she'd checked out. With growing enthusiasm and knowledge, she decided that some practice was in order. The last time that she, Princess Celestia, had pulled a prank on anybody had been when she and her sister had worked together – but little Luna was currently doing other things, trying to catch up after her 1000-year-long absence. As for herself...
“Let's see what kind of entertainment I can bring to the castle,” Celestia whispered to herself with a smile.
The invisible ink bottle from her student had reminded her of the way she and her sister had played together so long ago, and she missed that kind of fun. So now she was planning to, harmlessly of course, bring some of that fun back – even if only for a short time.
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Celestia was calmly sitting at her throne, waiting. She knew it was going to happen soon, because it was at the entrance to this very hall, and she just now set it up with her magic.
“Alright, it's time for a shift change,” The leader called through the door.
“Yes, sir!” The pegasi replied, as they walked forward, meeting the other two halfway.
The very moment one of the four guards took a step through the doorway, they tripped something. A second later, all four royal guards were coated from head to toe in flour. After blinking away some of it, the captain of them sighed.
“Sorry, but you'll have to wait until your shift ends before you can wash it out,” He said.
“Yes, sir,” The replacements said, enthusiasm low.
Celestia, back on her throne, blinked in surprise – but then a small, hidden smile split her face. Oh, how she missed this kind of fun! Sure, she hadn't expected to get all four of the guards like that, but that just made it even better. Perhaps Luna was already getting into her own little troubles in the Royal Library?
“Alright,” Luna muttered to herself, having learned from Ponyville's citizens how to not use the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. Her Unicorn horn was glowing slightly, as was a piece of parchment and a quill, nearby, ready to take notes on what she was reading. “So the spells here are focused on illusions...”
Glancing at the parchment on the nearby desk, she wrote down one on making throwing the voice. Sure, she'd read it before, but that was 1,000 years ago! Who knew what she'd forgotten over that amount of time? Turning her attention back to the book, she read that it mentioned focusing her magic to her lips and speaking. Looking at the scroll, she blinked.
“Huh?” She wondered, looking at it incredulously. It was blank!
Frowning with confusion, she wrote out the name of the spell, and glanced at the book to ensure she understood the explanation – but once again, once she looked back, the page had nothing on it. Eyes narrowing, she wrote a bunch of random words – and watched as they vanished.
“That's... weird...” She said to herself, looking at the ink bottle a little more closely. Grabbing a different one, she wrote again – and it worked. After a couple of 'tests', she pinned down the problem. “Someone replaced the ink with invisible ink! Now just who in this castle would do that?”
Luna decided to put her studies on hold, and went out to find exactly who would do something like that. She next spotted one of the cooks grumbling and stalking down that very same hallway. Upon noticing her, the stallion stopped what he was doing and bowed.
“Excuse me for my language, princess!” He exclaimed.
“Not to worry,” She replied, glad that she had learned in Ponyville the contemporary form of language. “What is it that causes you such grief?”
“Somepony decided it would be funny to replace the flour with actual flowers!”
Luna fought to keep a smile off her face, and went on her way. As she rounded the corner, she snorted in amusement. Whoever did that certainly had good taste in pranks! But the only pony who had access to the kitchens other than the cooks and herself was –
“I should've known it was you, sister,” Luna said it all, as she found Celestia in her room, writing. Said person jumped a little from the surprise visit, before her parchment was snatched from under her quill and given a careful read. “Your plans, sister?”
“Uhh...” Celestia, for once, was at a loss of what to say.
“You know, sister...” Luna said, placing the parchment down. “The one with the can of snakes... put the can in another cooking container.”
Celestia blinked, before grinning to her sister. The two of them relaxed and began to plot the “demise” of the castle. Sure, keeping things nice and orderly was good and all that jazz, but this was a lot more fun!
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“I forgot what fun pranks can be,” Celestia hummed to herself as she put together the pop-snakes-in-a-can prop, a couple weeks after she'd started. “With Luna and I alternating as culprits, it'll be tough for them to pin down who it is, because of our different styles! Now, for this... oh?”
The beautiful princess stopped what she was doing as a letter arrived in green flames, making her smile softly. A letter from her student, as she opened it and read it. After a few moments, she gave a chuckle, and pulled out another piece of paper, quickly writing out her response. It was after she sent it that she returned to her prank – and froze. The can of pop-up snakes was gone! After the initial panic of wondering that someone had broken in and stolen it right under her nose, she realized what had happened, and paled a bit.
“Well... uhh... I certainly hope Twilight doesn't mind a harmless prank...” She wondered with a bit of a sheepish look in Ponyville's general direction.
It was as Twilight and the other girls were talking about what they were going to do for the day. Honestly, it was just a slow day, and none of them really had nothing to do after that friendship report on Flim & Flam and were just chilling at the library, when the princess' letter came in.
“That was a fast reply,” Twilight noted, then ducked her head when Spike burped a bit louder, sending a can of... something flying over her head. And straight into Applejack's face.
“What in tarnation?” Applejack exclaimed, rubbing her nose. After reading the leader aloud and determining that the can was out of place, a question was put forth.
“What do we do with it?” Twilight asked.
“We open it, duh!” Dash said, grabbing it and twisting the top a bit.
There was a collective cry of surprise as snakes jumped out of the can and landed all over the floor. Dash flocked to the ceiling; Fluttershy gasped and basically collapsed onto her back; Twilight found herself in a bookshelf high off the ground with Spike not far behind; Rarity and Applejack jumped in surprise and dove for the higher landing on the stairs; Pinkie Pie recognized the prank immediently.
“Oh, girls!” Pinkie laughed in her usual giddy way as she bounced over to the unmoving snakes. “It's just a prank!”
To emphasize her point, she poked the fake snakes with her hoof. Nothing happened. She did it again. The toys didn't move. The other girls gave a sigh of relief and moved back to the floor, blushing slightly at their reactions.
“Why would the princess send something like that?” Twilight wondered, ever the one to see her mentor in a good light.
“To prank us, of course! That's the whole point of a prank, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed immediantly. “I know she's the princess and all, but I can't just let this lie! It is ON!”
Dash flew out the open window of the library's first floor, only to come back with a can in her grasp.
“Spike, letter, now!” Dash said, grinning.
“Now, Dash, ah don' think we can jus' send a prank to the princess,” Applejack tried to say, in an attempt to stop her friend.
“I don't see why not,” The cyan pegasus defended, before turning back to Spike. “Dear Princess Celestia...”
Back in Canterlot, the counter-prank was not Celestia's worries. Or Luna's for that matter.
“It's not that big of a deal,” Celestia shrugged to her sister. “It's simple to replace the items.”
Before Luna could respond, the familiar green ashes formed in front of the white alicorn, whom grabbed a hold of the items with her magic.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Now, I don't know if you meant to send those snakes or not – but if it's a prank war you want, it's a prank war you got!
Your Opponent,
Rainbow Dash
The moment she finished reading it aloud, Celestia noticed Luna opening the can, and said dark-furred alicorn had the same look as her sister – but it was too late. In a puff of white, the lid of the can flew up and the items in the can got all over both princesses, causing them both to cry out in surprise.
“Are you alright, sister?” Celestia asked after a moment.
“Yes, sister, it is nothing but flour,” Luna affirmed.
The two of them looked at each other, and laughed at the other's appearance. The doors flew open, the guards having become worried at their leaders' cries of alarm. Noticing that nothing bad had happened, they retreated to their posts as they stifled their own laughter.
“So, Rainbow Dash believes she can best us in a war of pranks, sister,” Luna stated with an amused look, as the two of them started for the bath to wash up. “I suppose we will simply have to prove her wrong, won't we?”
“Indeed we will, sister,” Celestia agreed with a smile.
Well, at least things weren't so boring anymore. Especially back in Ponyville, where Dash was being scolded for so brashly sending that can of blow-up flour by Twilight – but then another letter came, addressed on the outside to said pegasus. Try all the might, she couldn't get it open. After several minutes of struggles, she gave up and simply looked at the extra long ribbon attatched.
Challenge accepted, Rainbow Dash. - Princesses Celestia & Luna
Twilight's eyes went wide – both princesses were in on this? Before she could stop her, Dash grinned and started to enlist help from the rest of the girls. The prank war had begun, all pretenses of royalty status and such dropped for the sake of entertainment.
No, things definitely weren't going to be boring anymore. At least, not for quite some time...