• Published 23rd Apr 2012
  • 19,354 Views, 334 Comments

A Friend of the Night - Shotoman



Luna's depressed. She needs friends.

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Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I'm sorry you had to see us being such poor sports, Princess.

That's all right, Applejack. Anypony can get swept up in the excitement of competition.

It's important to remember that the friendship is always more important than the competition.

Celestia sighed with contentment as she settled in her bubble bath. While she usually avoided an overt display of finery, her bathtub was a sole exception. It was big enough for three ponies her size (not that she'd ever met that many), heated internally, and stocked with the finest of bath salts. She was a princess, after all. She could allow herself one luxury for luxury's sake. And she needed this bath today, that much was certain.

Attending the Running of the Leaves of Ponyville was an enjoyable experience to be sure, and it was quite entertaining indeed watching a pair of her faithful student's best friends make foals of themselves while caught up in the heat of competition. There was even a valuable lesson to share with Luna tonight, and she was sure to get a laugh out of the attending story. But it was still a very long, rather tiring day, even if it was an enjoyable one. This bath was just what she needed to recover from the rigors of the trip.

Yes, all was right with the world today. At least it was until she finished her bath, dried herself off and looked in her full body mirror. What she saw staring back at her caused her jaw to drop and her brain to stop working for a brief moment. She was pink. Bright bubble gum Pinkie Pie pink! Why was she pink? Of course, there was only one logical answer to that question: the bath salts had been tampered with. And seeing as how it was one of the most sealed off sections of the seat of the Equestrian government, there were few ponies who could access her private bathroom.

“LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

~FIM~

Later, in Celestia's private room, a pair of ponies sat in front of an irate Princess of the Sun. One of them, the green servant Sugar Heart, wore on her face a humorous, if slightly worrying, combination of amusement and abject fear. The other, Luna, her hair slightly longer, darker, and straighter than before, sat tall, wearing her most smug I-am-so-totally-guilty-but-try-and-make-me-confess smile on her face.

“Well,” Celestia began. “Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves?”

Sugar Heart opened her mouth, and she was going to offer profuse apologies, she really was. However, what she found herself saying was “W-well, it's a very nice look for you, Princess.” She instantly shoved her own hoof into her mouth and her eyes widened in shock. Where did that come from? Maybe Princess Luna really was a bad influence on her.

Sugar Heart's unexpected snark seemed equally surprising to the Princess Sisters; Celestia raised an eyebrow as she looked upon the cheeky little servant in front of her while Luna's smile was now showing teeth. “Oh yes, sister,” Luna continued, barely missing a beat. “We are certain thou will be quite the trendsetter in Canterlot now. Why, it will only be a matter of time before the nobility will begin dying their coats pink in order to emulate their wise and powerful Sun Princess.”

Celestia coolly regarded Luna for a moment. “And I suppose the two of you will still find this whole thing equally amusing when you are sending me weather reports from the moon?”

Sugar Heart's eyes almost doubled in size, while the pupils shrank into tiny pinpricks and her jaw dropped so far it almost seemed to have come unhinged. Luna, however, simply lost it. Between the sight of her festive looking sister, the over-the-top threat, and the look on her accomplice's face, she couldn't help it. She collapsed on the floor and began laughing. A long, loud laugh augmented by The Voice. Sugar Heart was certain she could hear thunder from somewhere outside, despite the Canterlot pegasi having cleared the sky earlier that night. She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate. How in the name of Celestia had she allowed herself to be talked into this?

“Princess I have a few words I would like to say in my defense that I hope might possibly allow me some small mercy in the coming sentence and those words are shemademedoit!” Sugar Heart pointed a hoof at Luna's giggling form next to her.

“TRAITOR!” Luna managed to bellow before erupting in laughter again.

Celestia's expression remained stern for a moment, but a her mouth did twist itself into a smirk. “I assume, then, dear sister, that the gauntlet has been thrown?”

Luna could only hiccup in reply, wiping a tear from her eye.

Celestia leaned down to look Luna in the eye, her face now fully alight with a smile, though Sugar Heart had to admit it was a smile that she didn't much like. “Then, dear sister, you may consider this a formal declaration of war.”

Though Luna required a few moments more to compose herself, she was eventually able to stand and look Celestia dead in the eye with a similarly frightening smile on her own face. “We shall gladly accept thy challenge, sister,” she replied with great confidence.

“Uh, Princess Luna?” Sugar Heart said, with a nervous shift of her eyes. “When you say 'we', do you mean the 'royal we' or 'we' as in 'you and me'?”

“Yes,” Luna said, even as her smile widened.

Sugar Heart facehoofed. She felt about ready to die of a heart attack just from the one prank. She simply could not imagine what a full on prank war would do to her. “This will not end well....”

~FIM~

Sunrise. Luna had managed to make it through another night without running afoul of one of Celestia's pranks. That was more worrisome than anything, though. Celestia hadn't even been trying, which could only mean she was saving up for something truly devious. Still, all Luna had to do this morning was return to her securely locked room and she'd be safe for another... "HI LULU!”

“GUAH!” Luna jumped several hooves in the air as a pair of blue eyes framed in bubble gum pink suddenly took up her entire field of vision. Upon recovering, she could see that a pink on pink young earth pony with a mane and tail like cotton candy was sitting in her room. “WHO ART...”

“Well hiya there Lulu do you mind if I call you Lulu it's such a cute name and you are such a cute princess I'm Pinkie Pie remember me we met at the old scary castle when we blasted you with that rainbow and it went whoooossh and you went aaaaaaaaaah and we went yeaaaah and then you came to Ponyville where we had that party so that means now we're friends and your sister sent a letter saying you've been down in the dumps and I can't let that happen to a friend of mine so I came right over to cheer you up is your favorite color blue maybe it's black do you think you have any kumquats in the royal kitchen I've never had a kumquat before I just like to say it so....”

Luna was struck speechless as the pony's stream of consciousness continued to roil and boil past her. The last thing she could remember thinking before her brain decided to shut down as some kind of fail safe was that declaring a prank war with Celestia was a very bad idea indeed.