Tickling. Declared as horrible torture by many. But there are two sides to every coin. And when it comes to tickling, well, ponies would sure know that, as displayed by various events all around Equestria.

Stories:

1. Stress Relief - Princesses Celestia and Luna are overwhelmed, stressed, on the verge of burnout and need to relax. But everything about work and responsibilities and everything work won't stop overflowing their heads. The only solution may be for somepony else to take control of their minds... and the somepony they choose may have something extra to add to that.

(This story idea was requested by superfun)

2. A Friendly Game - It's Rainbow Dash vs. Applejack and Rarity in a bet for who will have to be under each other's tickling "slavery" for a while. The loser(s), outside of a meal and sleep break, have to give the other(s) free reign to tickle them to their heart's desire. Do the "losers" really experience the tickling as a loss, though?

(This was also requested by superfun)

3. Tickle for Your Talent - Ponies of Ponyville wake up one day to find themselves suddenly not living up to what their cutie marks symbolize. Years of experience doesn't matter as they're botching every hobby and task. Trademark talents drained away, chaos ensues in the town. But might the solution turn out to be something really straightforward and fun?

(I came up with this idea, it was not requested)

4. You're Not So Bad After All - Spike and a pony cook up a sneaky plan to get the other dragons to stop viewing ponies in such a negative light. What if somepony who loves being tickled pretended to hate it and invited some dragons to "torture" her with tickling, only revealing at the end that she had fun? Hmm...

(This idea was also my creation)

5. ????????? - (to be revealed at publication)

Cover art by Little Tigress

Applejack and Rainbow Dash enter a period of struggle featuring reconsideration, confusion, evidence-checking, embarrassment, and more. Now, what's causing all that?

In short, what these two ponies remember about their experiences with tickling is that they don't like it. They don't want to be tickled.

But now... they do. They question if the memory sources they draw their dislike of being tickled from are reliable to how it would feel in a different setting.

No use not trying, right? Well, they agree, but it's not like they can just ask anypony to tickle them... right? No, that's too embarrassing. It's too sappy for these tough tomboys...

...but they want to be tickled.

I wrote a blog in which I quoted several parts of this story and made comments about them. I sure do have a lot of post-writing process thoughts on this story. I'd love to see you guys there!

This story is the first part of the series Adventures in Tickling. (Series title suggested by Captain_Cosmos). Full series table of contents:

1. Tickling Try-Out - complete
2. ?????????

Will be updated as series continues!