//------------------------------//
// Oh no! A little accident... 
// Story: Reign of the shy-pony 
// by The_Swedish_Horror 
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It was a beautiful day in Equestria, where the sunrise had painted the sky in wonderful colours of gold and orange. In Canterlot Castle a certain alicorn had just finished drinking her morning coffee. 
Princess Celestia walked around in her royal bedroom, dressed in bunny slippers and with a sleep mask still entangled in her ruffled mane. She was feeling mischievous today. The wise, kind and responsible ruler of Equestria couldn't help playing with the thought of doing something totally unexpected to surprise her subjects with new and amusing ways of royal misbehaviour.  

She continued to the royal dining room where she saw a tired, dark blue shadow of a pony at the table.
"Good morning Luna!" she said. 
"Godmorningsister..." Luna yawned while rubbing her eyes with her hoof. 
She was too tired to even notice that she was putting an oven mitt on her toast.
"Are you bursting with energy?" Celestia asked with a smile. 
"No, Celestia... I do not like staying up this late, you know."
"Have another cup of coffee then! I'm thinking of doing something fun today."
"Fun?" Luna asked while taking a small bite of her breakfast. She held up the toast and inspected it with a genuinely baffled expression on her face.
"Yes... Do you remember the old days, sister? When we were little fillies and used our magic to prank our poor subjects? I was thinking of that yesterday and I couldn't keep myself from coming up with a little plan..."
"I do not like the direction where this series of events are headed," Luna said and threw the toast into the garbage bin.


* * *


A few minutes later, but in Ponyville, Twilight would have enjoyed this beautiful morning, had she not been asleep in her bed. The little lavender unicorn was snoring under her quilt, oblivious to the wonders outside. She drooled on her pillow and mumbled in her sleep.
"Zzzz... dear... princess... Cele...zzzz...tia... Zzzz..."

Slowly a familiar shape emerged among the library's branches. It was Celestia. Using her horn as a crowbar she broke open the bedroom window and crawled into Twilight's room with the stealth of a panther. 
"Pssst, Luna! You got to see this," she whispered. 
Princess Luna emerged from the branches too.  
"She is sleeping like a kitten..."
"But Celestia, should we really do this to poor Twilight? What if she is not amused?"
"Oh, nonsense. She'll be all right. Give me the bowl." 
Luna handed Celestia the bowl with lukewarm water and the alicorn princess placed it right on Twilight's bed stand. Carefully the older sister dipped Twilight's hoof in it. 
"He he he he..." 
Then both sisters hid among the branches, waiting for the hilarity that would soon ensue. 

"Sister! Somepony is coming..." Luna whispered. 
It was Rainbow Dash who came trotting along the street outside the library. Celestia had expected her to be asleep, but somehow the pegasus had gotten up early for once. She carried a little red ball with her. Maybe she was on her way to set a new record? Celestia immediately decided to prank her, just on principle. Setting new records in pointless things were just too silly according to her.
"Rainbow Dash, so awesome and cool! But soon you will look like a fool..."
"Oh, your rhyming exclamation sounded just like Zecora! We surely must prank her too!" Luna said. The younger sister really begun to enjoy this kind of fun! 
"In due time. But first..." 
She was interrupted by a sudden outburst of distress coming from Twilight's room.
"OH! Oh no... no no no!"
"Got you, Twilight," Celestia whispered in triumph. 

Celestia put a spell that made both sisters invisible for a short while so they could follow Rainbow Dash from a distance. The unsuspecting pegasus started to play with her ball, bouncing it on the ground. She smiled happily. Then she threw it against the wall of Sugarcube corner and hit it again when it returned. 
At exactly the right moment Celestia grabbed the ball with a spell and pinned it to the ground with her magic power. Rainbow Dash was confused. She poked the ball with her hoof, but it didn't move at all. 
"Huh?" she said to herself. She gave it a harder poke. Nothing happened. "Why is it stuck?" 
She took a closer look but nothing seemed to be odd. It was just as if it was glued to the ground. 
"Stupid thing! Why don't you MOVE?!" 
Dash started to kick the ball repeatedly with her hooves. She kicked and kicked. Slowly a number of curious ponies started to gather around her. 
"What are you doing?" an orange pegasus asked.
"I'm kicking my stupid BAAAALL!"
"Buck it," Scootaloo suggested. 
There was a shocked silence in the crowd.
"Scootaloo! That's not cool to use that kind of language! Oh... Oh, you meant... he he, never mind." 
Rainbow Dash turned around and bucked the ball with a forceful kick! 
"MOVE!!!!" 
But it was no match for Celestia's unseen magic. The ball still didn't move at all.
"Okay, now I've had it! I will kick you into space!" Rainbow screamed and took of, flying a few meters up in the air to gather some momentum before descending on the ball like a lightning. At full force she dove right on it with a powerful kick that should have sent the ball flying like a mortar round, had Celestia not moved it at the precise moment before impact.
A surprised Rainbow Dash instead kicked through air, fell over and dove into a mud puddle!
The muffled giggle from Celestia and Luna was completely drowned out by the roaring laughter of the crowd.
"Oups," Celestia said. 

The two sisters continued along the Mane street until they reached the outskirts of Ponyville, where they wouldn't have to use the invisibility spell so often. They were not far from Fluttershy's cottage and Celestia suggested that they should pay her a little visit if she was still at home. 
"But, Celestia... Fluttershy is so nice and kind. Nopony ever pranks her."
"And that's why she needs it the most. I have prepared something quite special for her..."

And they were lucky, for the shy pegasus was in fact in her bed. Fluttershy wasn't asleep, but she preferred to stay in bed until she had to go up and feed her animals. Just a few minutes more... She was still tired from last night when she had helped an owl with a broken wing. Fluttershy rolled over and turned her back on the window, where the two invisible alicorns were hovering.
"Are we going to use the water?" Luna asked while slowly turning visible again.
"No, that would be too repetitive... Also we left the bowl at Twilight's place. I was thinking of putting a spell on her, turning her into something fun for a day. Maybe a cute bunny? Or a dragon? No, not a dragon... Dragons have a magic power to them that are far too powerful and strange. What if we turned her into a colt? I bet she'll be just as adorable as a colt! And we could set her up with a date... Hmm..."
"Or a kitten. I like kittens," said Luna, eager to pull the emergency brake on her sister's train of thought.
"Kitten it is then." 
"Shall I open the window?" 
"No, I'll just cast my spell right through it."
With a powerful glow from her horn, Celestia began to concentrate on her kitten spell, which was far more complicated than it would appear. She pictured Fluttershy as a cute, fluffy kitten. It was so fun that she and Luna could do this together, she thought... Cute fluffy kitten Fluttershy. Cute fluffy kitten... Doing pranks with Luna. Cute fluffy kitten. 
And she released the spell.

With a shock Fluttershy opened her eyes. A very strange feeling caught hold of her. Something wasn't right... Her body felt strange, she thought... She couldn't put her hoof on it, but something wasn't the way it was supposed to be. 

Outside the window there was nothing but branches and leaves. But on the ground below lay two shocked earth ponies that moments earlier had dropped from the air. One was blue and the other white. 
"Oh... oh, buck," Celestia said while scratching her pink mane in utter confusion.
"What is the matter?"
"Eh... um... you look different. I might have... accidently... turned you into an earth pony. Ha ha, no big matter, I'll just turn you back right away, Luna."
"How is that even possible?"
"Well, I might have... overlooked something when I cast the spell. My theory is that I somehow forgot that Flutterhy is connected to the elements, while we aren't anymore. And that made things a bit more... complicated. Does that answer your question, sister?" 
"No. I was thinking how it would be possible for you to cast any spell without your horn. You are an earth pony too, Celestia. " 
"Oh. Now we're bucked."

Meanwhile Fluttershy bumped her head against the ceiling when she tried to sit up in bed. The room was considerably smaller and she felt very awkward. Maybe her cottage had somehow shrunk? Slowly she crawled across the room while conducting a close inspection of her furniture and walls. Everything was too small. She really needed to buy a bigger home, she thought. The mirror was smaller too, and it showed a reflection of a... a... Fluttershy gasped in shock. 
The reflection in the mirror showed princess Celestia!
"Um... princess?" she asked. 
To her utter horror, the princess's lips moved when she said the words. For now she was princess Celestia... Or not exactly Celestia, but something closely resembling her. She had somehow become an alicorn!
"Oh m-my..."


* * *


Twilight Sparkle was at her home, carefully washing her bed sheets in the shower to get rid of any evidence from her little accident before Spike would notice it. She was blushing with embarrassment. This was just great! Just what she needed... 
When Twilight returned to her room with new sheets for her bed she noticed the bowl with water on her bed stand. 
"What's this?"
It was a beautiful porcelain bowl without any crack or dent. It must have been expensive and could not be from Ponyville... This was not one of her own bowls. Maybe somepony had left it there... But why? And how? And why was the window open? This called for an investigation...

At the entrance of the of the same edifice Spike heard desperate knocking on the door. He was in the middle of his breakfast consisting of a large gem and bowl of milk and cereals. He didn't like the cereals that much, but they were indeed much cheaper than gems. And even a baby dragon had bills to pay. 
"Come back later! The library opens in twenty minutes!" he cried.
But the knocking didn't cease. It sounded exactly as one might except from a panicking pony thundering her hooves against a wooden door. 
"All right! I'll open the door..."
Slowly the door swung ajar and Spike saw two earth ponies. They were thin and long-legged, with much distress in their big eyes and their manes were ruffed and wild. He immediately recognized them. 
"What in the name of... eh... I mean, what the hay?!"
"Dear Spike! Thou must help us! Get Twilight Sparkle quick! Something really, really bad has happened..."

Meanwhile Fluttershy was slowly emerging from under her bed where the glorious alicorn had went into hiding. What would the other ponies think of her? What would happen now? She had cried a little, not from sadness but from the sudden chock of unexpectedly being transformed into something, even if it was a magnificent alicorn princess. 
She took a shy glance at her reflection. She was indeed an alicorn with flowing, pink mane and beautiful, although swollen, eyes. Her cutie mark was still the same, though... And she was still the same, old Fluttershy, she hoped....
The alicorn slowly begun to make her way down the stairs.
"A-Angel bunny? she cried.
When Angel showed up he went nearly paralyzed with fear for a brief moment before fleeing into his hiding place under the cupboard. His terrified eyes followed her every move. 
"I'm just Fluttershy... You don't need to be scared, Angel!"
But it was to no use. He was trembling like a leaf and pressed his body against the floorboards like the scared rabbit he was.
"Oh no... Even my animal friends are scared of me... I will be forever alone!"