Nightmare Night was here. At last it was here and Rainbow was ecstatic. The last vestiges of the day’s sunlight were slowly but surely vanishing beneath the horizon. From her position next to her bedroom window, Rainbow could see that many ponies were guiding their fillies and colts along the streets, an impressive number of costumes on display. They went up to a house, knocked on the door, sang that silly little jingle when it opened, got their candy and did it again with the next house.
Rainbow wasn’t after the candy, though. A small smirk split her face as she began to imagine the sorts of fun to be had tonight. She checked the zipper and buckles on her jumpsuit one last time before confirming that her costume was fully functional and assembled.
Save for how much it hindered her flying. Were it not for the potential pranks she could pull with this costume, she would have disposed of it as soon as she tried it on. Still, a walking mass of writhing snakes is pretty spooky, she figured, so she determined it was worth the hinderance to her flight in exchange for sweet, sweet pranking.
Just for tonight, obviously.
With all accounted for, she took the mask that would hide her mane and face in more snakes and set it upon her head. She moved around a bit and then lifted into the air with a burst of her wings. She scanned the streets from her vantage point and soon spotted her target. A blue pony with a darker blue mane with silver streaks in it stepped away from her most recent score of candy with an enormous grin on her face.
“There she is… heh heh heh…” Rainbow snickered before opening her window and quickly soaring down and over to the filly’s location a few blocks away. Rainbow set herself down in an alley ahead of her quarry and waited eagerly for them to pass. She slowed her breathing and focused. Like a predator about to pounce upon an unsuspecting gazelle, she waited. Or something like that. She’d listened to Twilight talk about animal behaviors and biology a bit too much recently. Seconds began to tick by. Finally, the unicorn happily cantered past with her gleeful smile as wide as ever.
“HIIISSSSS!!!” Rainbow lunged out of the alley, making the most convincing hissing sound she possibly could. The blue unicorn squawked in surprise and scrambled back, her ears flat against her head in response. Rainbow smiled widely under her snakes and slithered forward after the filly.
She looked back at Rainbow and then stopped abruptly. Rainbow stopped as well when Minuette rolled her eyes and laughed happily. “Oh, hey Rainbow Dash! Nice one, you got me good! How’s it going?” she waved with a grin. Rainbow paused and facehooved with a small grunt of disappointment.
“Minuette, you’re blowing my cover!” she whispered in frustration of the hunt being broken off so quickly. Minuette only laughed.
“No I’m not, I’m seeing through it silly!” Minuette trotted up and ruffled Rainbow’s mane, or would have had it not been for the fake snakes on her head. “Speaking of cover, you’re costume covers pretty much everything…”
“Yeah! Celestia helped me make it. Pretty cool, huh?” Rainbow grinned proudly, puffing up with pride and making the snakes all along her body wiggle in the process.
“Yeah, you make a fantastic medusa pony who hasn’t cut her mane in a long time!” Minuette replied with an impressed smile of her own. Rainbow blinked in slight confusion before remembering the old tale. Minuette giggled happily at the small frown Rainbow wore.
“...Not quite the interpretation I was going for, but I’ll take it,” she finally said with an absent-minded shrug. She then put on an eager and questioning expression. “Now then! You ready to get down to business?”
Minuette grinned widely, a certain sadistic glint coming into her eyes, matching the one in Rainbow’s. She leaned back just enough to lift her forehooves and rub them together like a master schemer villain. “Oh, yeah. So ready.”
Rainbow nodded and turned, beckoning Minuette to follow her. “Then let’s get started, eh?…”
And so there reign of terror upon Canterlot began. The two young ponies, just like they had planned over the previous two days when nopony else was looking, systematically picked targets, watched them for a short time and then set up a prank of some description to get a rise out of them. The results were… severely underwhelming, Rainbow was disappointed to admit. Many of the fillies and colts they hit were the only ones to have worth while reactions, but they always traveled with adults, who were oftentimes just annoyed and sometimes counter attacked. Rainbow was still a bit miffed about the candy apple that had been stuck in the snakes in front of her face.
Now, however, they were feeling lucky. They had found a filly around their age sitting on her own under an out of the way tree with her nose in a book. Her pale butter colored coat was definitely easy to spot for the two pranksters as they set about getting their prank ready. Dash couldn’t help but notice Minuette occasionally shooting a curious glance at the other filly, as if she were trying to get a closer look without being detected. The filly in question was wearing a pretty full costume, looking to be that of some renowned sorcerer or something. Rainbow didn’t really know.
Eventually, she shifted out of their hiding place in some nearby bushes and glanced through her binoculars, courtesy of Minuette, to study their target one more time. She examined the unsuspecting filly while her partner got the last things arranged. Rainbow Dash couldn’t contain herself and snickered evilly.
Minuette glanced at the binoculars for a moment before poking Rainbow in her shoulder. “Hey, can I see those for just a second?” she asked with a slight hint of unease in her voice.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but nodded and passed Minuette the binoculars. ‘Sure. ‘sup?” she asked while Minuette took a look. For a moment Minuette was silent, scrutinizing their would-be victim carefully. Then she grimaced and lowered the binoculars.
“We aren’t pranking this one, Dashie. Sorry.” Minuette said slightly disappointedly. She looked to Rainbow with an apologetic smile.
‘Huh? Why not?” Rainbow raised and eyebrow and glanced at the filly again, not seeing what it was that had made Minuette suddenly back down.
“That’s Moondancer, Rainbow Dash!” She pointed out with a stern expression. “She’s very reserved and socially anxious. She has one heck of a shell and the others and I are still trying to help her open up a little. It doesn’t take a lot to get under her skin, either, and not in a good way. If we do this to her, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Twilight and I may lose all the progress we’ve made getting her out of her shell. I think we should abandon this one… And besides all of that, she’s my friend.” Minuette explained with her face going somewhat more solemn.
Rainbow sighed dejectedly and nodded. “Alright, I see your point. Let’s go, then. There oughta be somepony else we can-” she suddenly stopped when a sharp throb went through her head. The world became unsteady and Rainbow fell to her haunches while lifting a forehoof up to her eyes. Her ears were ringing and her vision was going blurry. ‘Ugh, what… what the?” she asked distantly, her words sounding muffled and distant. When she lowered her forehoof, she could see white tendrils flickering at the edges of her vision expanding rapidly.
“Rainbow? What’s wrong, are you okay?” Minuette asked, her voice tinged with deep concern at Rainbow’s sudden behavior. She reached a hoof out to Rainbow’s shoulder and shook her gently. The pegasus filly didn’t even feel the contact. Her body felt numb and unresponsive to her will. Suddenly, a gasp tore its way from her lungs and her vision was suddenly enveloped in pure white.
“Is somepony over there? Who’re we gonna squirt, who’re we gonna squirt?!” a pink pony with an equally (if not more) pink mane and tail asked, jumping excitedly in the air with a squeaker in her mouth. A rope was attached to the squeaker connecting it to a small fake turtle. Rainbow chuckled while peering through a telescope. On the other side of a pond, she could see Fluttershy, all grown up, curiously studying the fake turtle.
“Heh heh… Fluttershy.” Rainbow heard herself say, though she hadn’t made herself do it. What’s going on? She thought to herself.
“WHAT?!” The pink pony shrieked before spitting out the squeaker, “Ptooey! Nonononono, we CAN'T prank Fluttershy! I mean, she’s so sensitive! It’ll hurt her feelings. Even our most harmless prank!”
Rainbow sighed and pulled away from the telescope. “Yeah, you’re right,” she breathed out a puff of air in mild disappointment before looking around with a searching gaze. “Huh… we need another victim whose made of tougher stuff… so, who's it gonna be?”
While her body moved and acted without her permission, Rainbow felt a fresh wave of confusion wash over, only adding to the already deep waters of her confusion. Who was that pink pony standing there, and what had possessed Rainbow Dash into thinking a prank of Fluttershy could ever end well? It just didn’t add up!
Before she could think about it further, however, the vision abruptly shattered and she found herself sitting in front of Minuette once again.
“Dahie, are you okay?” She asked, shaking Rainbow harshly. “Say something!”
Rainbow responded by sluggishly prying Minuette’s hooves off of her. “Hey, stop shaking me. Uuuugh…”
“Oh, shoot! Sorry!” Minuette apologized with a sheepish smile. Rainbow groaned uncomfortably and massaged her temples for several seconds. “What… what happened to you? Are you alright?”
“Uh, y-yeah, I’m fine, Minuette. I’m... fine.” Rainbow replied drowsily, rubbing her face with her hooves. “Gah, what was that?”
“Hm? What was what?” Minuette tilted her head before helping the still unsteady Rainbow Dash to her hooves.
Rainbow shook her head in an effort to clear some of the fog that was suddenly clouding her thoughts. “I’m not sure. It’s like… I saw some pink pony and I talking to each other. We were setting some prank or other on Fluttershy…” Rainbow’s face twisted with confusion. “But it makes no sense. Fluttershy’s still a filly! She’s barely any older than I am! Why was she-… uh-oh…” Rainbow’s confusion gradually gave way to a small but growing sense of dread. She looked at Minuette apologetically while taking off the snakes covering her head. “Hey, uh, I’m really sorry about this, but I need to get back to Princess Celestia.”
“What’s going on? Are you sick or something?” Minuette asked, watching with worry as Rainbow pulled on the zipper of the jumpsuit and shed her costume.
“I hope not, but I’m gonna go make sure. My costume’ll just slow me down, so do you mind holding onto it for me until I come get it?” Rainbow asked quickly while nudging the pile of fabric and toy snakes to the blue unicorn next to her. Minuette glanced to the discarded costume, then to Rainbow with her brow furrowing.
“Uh… sure, I guess.” Minuette said a bit uneasily, picking up the costume in her magic and draping it across her back. Rainbow smiled thankfully to her before lifting into the air.
“Thanks, Minuette! I’ll pick it up in the morning. Enjoy the rest of your nightmare night!” Rainbow called out as she took off and shot for Canterlot Castle, leaving her trademarked prismatic trail in her wake. Minuette watched the young princess depart with no small amount of confusion and concern. She fidgeted nervously before shifting her eyes to look at the costume draped over her back.
“Yeah, you too.” she mumbled before turning around and leaving the cover of the bushes, heading in Moondancer’s direction.