//------------------------------// // Feather Filled Follies // Story: Twilight's Terrifying Traps // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// Twilight stalked around the portal, a few hairs out of place and a twitch to her eyes. To anyone who would watch without interrupting, she would look more like a ravenous predator than a pony. The lavender mare was so focused on the portal, that she failed to notice the incredibly irritated unicorn staring at her from the doorway. The unicorn mare, who had bags under her eyes, a red nose, and a pale complexion to her usually pink fur, that was continually having her sleep disturbed by screaming and pleas for mercy. If Starlight were still a teenager or megalomaniac, they probably would have pulled her to sleep. Right now, they were both worrisome for whom it concerned and annoying for her attempts to get some rest. “Twilight,” the pink unicorn rubbed her head and levitated some tissues behind her as she walked in, “what are you doing?” The alicorn’s head whipped around and looked at her student, eyes slightly out of focus and smile starting to become unhinged. “Starlight! It’s so good to see you!” Starlight recoiled at the sight of the princess and nervously walked closer. “Uh... yeah, good to see you too.” Clearing her throat, she waved a hoof at the mirror and raised an eyebrow. “So why are you stalking the portal?” The laugh with which Twilight started her response did nothing to ease Starlight’s thoughts. “Oh, it’s nothing really.” The lavender alicorn started pacing back and forth. “It’s not like five of my friends did the one thing I told them not to do for the past several weeks, and snuck across the mirror portal to confront their counterparts!” Sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose, the sick unicorn’s eyes followed her teacher’s movements. “Twilight, I doubt it’s as bad as you’re making it out to be-” “Sunset wrote to me that Rainbow attacked her counterpart.” Twilight’s mane was slightly singed, but a small flame was still dancing on the ends of her hair. “What’s more, I have absolutely no idea if the others did so or not. I have been making Ruby Goldenberg style traps for the past few hours just to vent the frustration and be productive in making sure none of them can’t run off before I can give them all the lecture of a lifetime in the proper and safe usage of ancient artifacts and interdimensional travel.” Hesitating, Starlight smiled nervously. “Okay, maybe it’s a little bad, but you really need to calm down. So, Rainbow did something, er, questionable. I doubt that the others did anything too extreme. I mean, from the screams I’ve had keep me awake all day, I’m pretty sure you’ve got a few of them, right?” Twilight’s face was thankfully, but slowly becoming less deranged as she went on. “Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity. The only two friends I’ve been unable to account for are Fluttershy and Pinkie.” “Twilight, ask yourself this.” Starlight put a hoof on the alicorn’s shoulder and started to lead her out of the study and away from the portal, but had to take a moment to cough during the trip. “Would Fluttershy or Pinkie do anything that would warrant... this?” “Well, Fluttershy I... don’t actually see going too far with this. Maybe a quiet argument at worst?” Twilight’s ears started to droop as they walked. “I’m completely unsure about Pinkie though. She didn’t seem too upset with her counterpart when I told them all what happened. But there was also that time when Applejack broke a Pinkie Promise, and she became absolutely infuriated!” “But would they hurt them?” The pink unicorn pushed the question, trying to help calm down the lavender alicorn. “I.. um...” Twilight stopped in the middle of the hall and sat down, the flame in her hair extinguishing completely. “I went too far with the traps... didn’t I?” Looking over and seeing the filthy hallway, Starlight deadpanned at her mentor. “Yeah, ya kinda did.” Walking up to the frowning alicorn, Starlight put on a small smile. “Why don’t we go and pull your friends out of wherever you got them stuck, and ask them what they did?” Twilight chuckled nervously and started down the hallway. “I um... actually have them all in the same spot at the moment. They’re all a few rooms away from the study.” The duo headed down the hallway and upon entering the room, found Applejack had hopped her hay bale over towards Rarity and was trying to nudge the portrait off the wall. “Just a little more Rares. Yer almost off the wall!” Rarity was lazily leaning against the side of the picture frame, looking like an utterly bored puffball. “Darling, I doubt knocking the picture off its perch is going to get me out.” Rainbow called from her spot in the corner, still unable to move. “Hey, it worked in Daring Do and the Pistachio Painting, it’ll work here!” The fashion mare’s eyes locked on Rainbow as she glared. “Rainbow do I look like an ancient artifact to you!?” The flyer shrugged as much as her frozen form allowed, a smug grin on her face. “Nah, you look more like a picture of a cotton ball.” The force of Rarity’s screams was enough to shake the picture and make the white fluff appear red around her face. “WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, YOU ARE GETTING PUT INTO SO MANY DRESSES I’LL HAVE SEVEN NEW SEASONAL LINES READY!” Clearing her throat, Starlight got the trio’s attention and had them all frozen in place when they also caught sight of Twilight. Applejack immediately sank down in her hay bale as much as she could and grinned nervously. “Heh, Heya there Twilight.” Chuckling nervously, Twilight trotted into the room and was blushing. “Um... hey.” She could only hold the smile for so long before she deflated with a sigh and looked at the floor. “Girls... I’m sorry.” Rainbow’s face scrunched in confusion as she stared at Twilight. “Huh?” Applejack’s reaction was quite similar, with the addition of a raised eyebrow. “Pardon?” Scuffing her hoof on the floor, Twilight glanced at Starlight and at the sight of the sick unicorn’s unamused face, the princess continued. “When I found the portal open, I knew somepony had gotten through, so I wrote to Sunset to see if she had seen any of you.” She pointedly frowned as she looked at Rainbow, before softening her gaze again. “When I got a message back that Rainbow assaulted her counterpart, I assumed the worst of all of you.” Her ears fell back as she looked at the three still in binds. “For that, I’m sorry, and I’ll do whatever I can to make up for doing all of this to you, and I promise to let you all out.” Starlight nodded in approval and smiled. “Good to see your head’s back on straight Twilight.” She chuckled a bit. “I mean, it’s not like Rarity or Applejack beat up their counterparts like Rainbow did.” The three were silent for a time, sharing a glance with each other before Applejack looked directly at Twilight. “Uh, about that.” Both Starlight and Twilight froze and looked directly at them. “What?” Applejack’s face scrunched up as she looked this way and that. “Ah uh... might have gotten into a bit of a tussle with my counterpart.” As Twilight’s eye started to twitch again, a bead of sweat rolled down Applejack’s face. “But for the record, she threw the first punch.” The sick pink unicorn face-hoofed and groaned. “Are you serious?” Noticing Rarity clearing her throat, her jaw dropped. “You too!?” Rarity looked away as she batted her mane from her face floof. “Our conversation started civilly. We merely had a... disagreement on the topic of her fashion choices.” Rainbow looked over with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you said the two of you had a full-on catfight?” Rarity shot her an incredulous stare. “What!? You did!” “You both did WHAT!?” Twilight pulled at her mane as she stared at the abashed faces. “Twilight!” Starlight coughed a bit as she rubbed her throat. “Oh, I need to stop yelling. Look, it doesn’t matter right now what they did or didn’t do. You went overboard with the traps, apologized, and we're going to help take them all down, right?” Rainbow looked up in thought. “Well... I don’t know about Fluttershy, but Pinkie looked prepared for w-” The glare she got from Starlight made her clench her jaws shut. “Right. Hoof in the mouth. Shutting up.” The princess looked to Starlight in surprise as she waved a hoof at her friends. “See! I--” A pink hoof stuck in her mouth silenced her. “Twilight, there is no guarantee that Fluttershy,” she glared at Rainbow again for good measure, “or Pinkie is going to follow in the same vein as these three. So let’s get the traps disabled before anypony--” A pit filled with feathers opened in the floor next to her, and she jumped back. “Gah!” Twilight’s eyes shrank as she stared at the pit. “Oh no. If that’s activated, that means somepony fell into one of the traps! But Who!?” The portal buzzed for a moment as Fluttershy stepped back through. Once she was back on all fours, she sighed in relief and stretched. “Maybe I shouldn't have threatened to have Discord visit their world. Oh, I hope I wasn’t too hard on her. Me? Hmmm...” Looking about the empty study, she was surprised to see the details that were added since she left. With the small, slanted ledges painted to match the crystal, and the hole in the floor making one of the doors inaccessible, worry started to flood her mind. “What happened?” The shy pegasus decided to investigate as much as she could, and started examining the room in closer detail. She leaned over and looked down the pit, seeing the white cream that swirled slightly at the bottom, and got a faint blush on her cheeks from the smell. “Maybe... not that way.” Stepping away from the hole, Fluttershy looked over the shelves, finding the faint scent of apples hung in the air. She pondered what could have happened for a moment, before continuing her search at Twilight’s desk. Standing in front of the desk, Fluttershy noticed that a cute little doll of panda bear with a bow was sitting on a throw rug that wasn’t there before. It was curiosity that lead her to walk over and pick up the plush bear, looking it over. A small alarm went off as she picked up the bear, and Fluttershy’s wings snapped to her sides as she hugged the teddy in fear. She started looking around to find where her possible doom may have been coming from. A second later, the net hidden under the throw rug went taut and trampolined Fluttershy into the air. The poor mare flailed her hind legs, still clutching the teddy bear for dear life, as a padded paddle swung out from the ceiling and batted her out the door and into the hallway, landing her on a second padded panel. The second paddle launched her to the side and unfortunately made her lose her grip on the stuffed panda. Fluttershy flipped through the air for a moment, before landing on a small platform that had been rigged up with wheels, sending her careening forward, until a tripwire caught it and forced her to fly into the air. The pegasus tried to stop herself with her wings but felt something tingle across her body as she started to weightlessly float down the hall. No matter how she flapped, she couldn’t change her direction or speed. She stared down the hallway, spotting a chair lazily float ahead of her, seconds before it floated to the ceiling and pressed itself into place. A gulp was all the time Fluttershy spared herself before desperately trying to fly the other way. Her effort was futile, as she eventually found herself sprawling across the ceiling. Trying to stand upright, Fluttershy felt the chair sliding behind her and under her rump, before flying down the hallway, flipping back to the ground as it moved. The chair ran fast enough that the poor mare couldn’t escape before it burst through a set of doors and dumped her forward into a pit filled with feathers. The same room that the five other mares were in. Twilight looked down into the pit, panic across her face. “Fluttershy! Are you alright!?” She laid at the bottom of the pit in confusion for a moment, before she felt something slide back and forth across one of her rear hooves. She started to giggle at the feeling when she felt another between her wings, then a third on her nose. Before she knew it, all the feathers were dancing in place, and she was struggling to contain her laughter. Rainbow’s eyebrows knitted together as she looked at the pit. “Uh... is she giggling?” Rarity squinted from her painting and frowned. “Twilight, what did you do to those feathers?” A bead of sweat dripped down the princess’s brow. “Hehe, funny story about that. I uh... might have originally planned this trap for Pinkie, and wanted to use the very element she represented to trap her ironically?” The nervous smile Twilight wore did nothing to relive the deadpan glares she was getting. Fluttershy’s head suddenly burst out of the pit of feathers, tears streaming down her cheeks as she laughed uncontrollably. “T-Twilight! Please! Make it Stop! I can’t take it!” The laugh only grew as she weakly flailed within the downy tomb she laid in, bordering on becoming a full cackle. Thankfully, Starlight had mercy on the poor mare and helped pull her out of the feathers. The red-faced Fluttershy laid on the ground, a dopey smile on her face and the occasional giggle escaping her as she panted. "Why is it that the sick mare is the one doing all the," she paused to cough into her frog, "work?" Rainbow looked at her longtime friend in worry. “You okay there Flutters?” A silly giggle was her response. “Yeah, she’s gonna be fine.”