//------------------------------// // Spell 7 - The Pranks // Story: Friendship is SHOWTIME!! // by MangaKamen //------------------------------// I’m the man that will make all students become my friends. - Kisaragi Gentarou TTTTTT Spell 7 The Pranks TTTTTT My dearest student, I am glad that you have been continuing your studies in friendship, and I am also happy that you are making new friends. This Haru sounds like an interesting character, and I would like to meet him sometime in the future. That being said, Twilight, the next time that Spike is on official Canterlot Business, I would like to ask that you send this Haru with him. These Phantoms that you wrote about are rather troubling, but I would like to talk to your new dragon friend first hoof before I can confirm anything. If he refuses to come on the pretense that he can’t leave Ponyville out of somepony’s safety, tell him not to worry. He is not the only one with unusual forms of magic in Equestria. With Love, Princess Celestia of Equestria Twilight had to read the letter quietly to herself for a second time. The letter had arrived early in the morning, Spike was barely awake when the letter arrived, and at least it woke up the little baby dragon from what little remains of sleep were in his system. At the very least, Haru was still asleep when Twilight had received the letter. The sleeker dragon usually slept till noon most days, of course, that’s because he kept using his magic on the prior day, either to help around the house, run some errands or to use them to allow Twilight to observe the magic that was used. And frankly, she was learning a lot about Haru’s magic! She also had to admit that using some of his spells were quite fun. Although, she skipped out on the Dance Spell (once was enough for her), but other spells were good. A small neighing sound echoed through the air, making Twilight look at the nearby table to see the sapphire built Unicorn trying to get her attention with a note in its mouth. At first, seeing a small, toy-like unicorn move was rather unnerving, but Twilight got used to it. “Thank you Unicorn,” Twilight used her magic to take the note from the smaller unicorn. “Although, I wish Haru would’ve come up with a much better name for you. Hmm, maybe I should come up with one sometime.” Unicorn neighed loudly in agreement, which made Twilight smile as the note flew up to her eyes, “So, let’s see what this says.” Dear Twilight, Spike woke me up a few minutes ago, saying he had to run some errands this morning. I decided to go with him and see him to his first errand, after that, I’m going to try to find some work. I don’t like being a bum, so I’m at least going to try to chip in for groceries or something. See you later this afternoon, Haruto. Twilight smiled at the small note. ‘I guess that explains why Unicorn’s here. Although, I’m rather surprised, Haru’s been really helpful. He saved Applejack and myself, but he doesn’t think that’s enough. I guess that’s good.’ Shaking that from her head, Twilight looked outside, seeing that it was a beautiful day. With a smile, Twilight used her magic to pull a nearby book from the shelves, “Might as well enjoy the day, care to join me… Hmm, how about Sapphire?” Unicorn shook its head before it leapt onto the lavender mare’s back. “We’ll work on that,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly before she began to trot through the library. ‘I wonder where Haru’s going to get work.’ TTTTTT “CONNECT – PLEASE!” With the runic circle a few inches away, Haru reached into the circle with both of his arms and pulled out a few bags of sugar and flour. “Mr. Cake, where do you need these?” “You can put them right atop of the shelves,” A tall, skinny yellow stallion replied as he reached into the runic circle. The stallion was sleek with a developed jaw, and a short carrot colored mane. “This feels rather weird to use, Haruto.” “I know, I felt the same when I first reached into it,” Haru replied as he fitted the sacks of material onto the nearby shelves. “You should try going through it sometime, it’s kind of a trip when all of you goes through it.” Mr. Cake chuckled as he pulled his front hoof out of the circle to reveal another sack of flour. “Well, I think I’ll just stick with using this spell to help with restocking.” Haruto chuckled as he jumped through the circle and jumped right back out with a crate of materials in his claws. “You don’t know what you’re missing out on here Mr. Cake. Thanks for the work though, I really appreciate it.” “I should be the one saying that,” Mr. Cake replied, a rather sheepish smile slipping on his face. “It usually takes me hours to get the restocking done by myself, but with you here and your magic, I think we might just get done within the hour.” Haru stuck his head into the runic circle and immediately pulled back, dusting off his claws, “Actually, the cart outside is empty, we managed to get everything in here.” Mr. Cake blinked a few times, “Wait, really?” “You’re more than welcomed to see for yourself,” Haru offered as he gestured towards the connect portal. “I’ll just look outside,” Mr. Cake replied as he trotted past the mythical dragon. “I’d be glad if you continue the stocking while I make sure we didn’t miss anything.” “Sure thing, Mr. Cake,” Haru replied with a slight nod towards the older stallion who was trotting out of the room. A few minutes later and with all of the shelves fully stocked with cooking materials, Haru was out in the main lobby of Sugarcube Corner, sipping on a cup of coffee with Mr. Cake. “Nothing like some coffee after hard work. Thanks again for the work, Mr. Cake.” “Think nothing of it,” Mr. Cake replied with a wave of his hoof. “That magic of yours is rather handy.” “It’s got its ups and downs,” Haru stated before taking a quick sip of coffee. “Well, cutting down how long it takes to do stock is certainly an up,” Mr. Cake chuckled. “Especially since Pinkie’s taking a couple days off.” “Oh right, I remember Pinkie works here,” Haru muttered to himself out loud. During his first night in Ponyville, Haru learned that fact when said pink mare had dragged him off to plan for his party. Subsequently, it was also during that time that Haru had met Mr. and Mrs. Cake of Sugarcube Corner and that Pinkie worked at the building and even lived in one of the spare rooms above. The red dragon coughed as he rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, uh, once again, I’m sorry for scaring your wife.” “Don’t you worry, Mister Souma,” A charming, yet mature voice said, drawing Haru’s attention towards the doorway that led to the kitchen. Trotting carefully from the kitchen with a bag placed on her back was a mature blue mare with a slightly swirly, pink mane and tail. “I just wasn’t expecting to see a dragon so suddenly.” Haru chuckled slightly before he placed his coffee mug on the table, “Uh, right, so, anyway I really appreciate you two giving me a temporary job, and if you ever need any extra help, I’d be glad to supply it.” That’s when a rather loud growl echoed through the air, making Haru’s face light up a touch redder than usual, “Uh, sorry about that.” “No need to apologize, dear,” Mrs. Cake replied with a warm smile on her face before she slid the bag onto the table. “It’s early, and from the sound of your stomach, you probably didn’t get a chance to eat, so here’s a little extra for coming by.” Haru quickly peeked into the bag and licked his maw, “Plain sugar doughnuts, how much do I owe you?” “They’re on the house dear,” Mrs. Cake replied with a warm smile. “After all, didn’t you come by just to get some breakfast in the first place?” That was true, Haru was on his way to pick up a little something to tie him over during the morning, but, when he had come by Sugarcube Corner, the dragon had noticed that Mr. Cake was unloading materials from a cart. Hence, Haru offered to help the stallion with his work. And rather to not break his back, Mr. Cake took the assistance happily. “Yeah, but the few bits Mr. Cake gave me was enough,” Haru replied as he closed the bag. Mr. Cake pushed the bag closer to Haru, “Nonsense, just think of it as a bonus for helping. There’s nothing wrong with accepting a gift every now and then.” “Well, it would be a waste of good doughnuts,” Haru muttered as he inched one of his claws to the bag. TTTTTT Meanwhile in the Everfree Forest, Harpie looked over Minotaur – Though his armor was fully recovered, the larger Phantom hadn’t been able to move. “How long are we going to wait for this?” Harpie craned her head back to see another Phantom standing within the shadow of the trees, small sparks popping off its body. “Harpie, it’s been over a week since Minotaur failed. We need to get back to work and to Awaken the Gates!” The Phantom stepped from the shadows to reveal a canine-like design with a slim body with crystalized flames that made up its armored body. The new Phantom’s face was overshadowed by a jaw-like helmet with the same flames that formed a bit of hound-like ears. “This reprieve is so boring.” “Hellhound,” Harpie hissed as she lifted up a wing at the Phantom, Hellhound. “We can’t rush this, you know what we’re up against, and without half our muscle, we won’t be able to succeed. Especially with that Ring Bearing Mage around.” “Then just send me out!” Hellhound laughed before he stomped one of his hind paws into the ground. “I can make this extremely showy! And I’ll get the job done! You know what I’m capable of!” “Yes, and Gnome had the same mindset and a power similar to yours,” Harpie countered as she spun around, her back to Hellhound, which made the canine-like Phantom wince slightly. “And we both know what happened to him, even Minotaur, who’s physically stronger than both of you was defeated easily and almost got killed. If we’re not careful and pull all of our resources together, then we’re destined to only fail. “And even if the Ring Bearing Mage doesn’t do us in, you know that either Master Phoenix or Madame Medusa will be the end of us.” Hellhound sighed loudly as he kicked a nearby rock… Only to cry out as he lifted up his now bruised paw-like foot, “ARRGH! STUPID ROCK!” Harpie rolled her eyes at her fellow Phantom, not even bothering to turn around at Hellhound’s pain. “You’re the one who kicked it, you know.” “I KNOW!” Hellhound barked before he threw his arms up and down into the air. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that we’re stuck here and we’ve got two Gates just walking with targets on their backs! “Com’on Harpie! You know what I can do! I can do this mission! I won’t fail like Gnome did! And we’ve got another Phantom nearby! We can’t let any other Phantoms make us look bad!” “Hellhound!” Harpie roared back, turning around to glare at the complaining Phantom, her wings held up tall and her eyes narrowed down. “I am well aware of your abilities to sense Phantoms, but you won’t do anything unless I give the okay, is that clear?! We almost lost Minotaur, and I’ll be damned to Tartarus if we lose you or Dryad! “Now, if you want to do something to quell your anxiousness, then you keep an eye on this other Phantom you sense. Hopefully if Minotaur recovers quick enough, then we might just be able to find another Gate that we can target.” Hellhound growled before he jumped backwards and into the shadows, immediately disappearing into the darkness. With a loud sigh, Harpie turned back to fallen Minotaur, “Minotaur, I don’t know what to do with that brother of yours… I don’t think I can keep him on leash for too much longer.” TTTTTTTT Haru took a whiff of the doughnuts from their bag. The sleek dragon had left Sugarcube Corner a few minutes ago, with a few bits in his black jacket’s pocket and a full bag of doughnuts in tow. He hadn’t eaten any of the doughnuts yet, mainly because he wanted to find a nice quiet place to eat his breakfast. Although, he could’ve eaten at the pastry shop, that was interrupted when a real weird pegasus flew into the shop, yammering about all the muffins that the Cakes had put out for the morning rush. Normally, a grey pegasus with a yellow mane going gaga over muffins wouldn’t make Haru not eat his doughnuts. But, those eyes. Dear Celestia those eyes! That pegasus trotted up to Haru just as he was about to take a bite out of his first doughnut of the morning, and when he got a good look at her, he stopped in mid-bite when he looked into those yellow eyes of hers. Those crossed eyes. The dragon had fought against a couple of nasty creatures, could use magic and even acted cool and level headed under pressure. But, when he looked into the gaze of the wall-eyed pegasus before him, Haru was rendered speechless. Luckily, the mare seemed more preoccupied with her tirade of how muffins were superior to doughnuts (a point that he wanted to object to, but those eyes), so Haru couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Haru had slipped out from the business establishment when the pegasus’ order was ready and she turned to get said muffins. Hence, that was why Haru was now walking the streets of Ponyville, reaching into the bag. ‘I guess I’ll enjoy some right now. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.’ Pulling out the top doughnut from the bag, Haru stopped in his tracks and held the plain sugary treat in front of his maw. Taking a couple of whiffs of the baked good, Haru took simple bite from the doughnut and a large smile appeared on the mystical dragon’s face as he slowly chewed the delectable sweet. ‘With the name Cake, those two do know how to make a good doughnut!’ However, when Haru was about take a second taste, a blur of rainbow colors crashed into him, sending him and his bag of doughnuts flying through the air. The dragon, the bag of doughnuts, and even the blur crashed in the midst of Ponyville, yet, none of the walking ponies seemed to react to the devastating crash that just occurred. When Haru regained his composure, he realized that a rainbow was blocking his line of sight, and the gears in his head began to turn. “Why the rush, Rainbow Dash?” “OH RAINBOW DASH~!” Half a second later, said pegasus had pushed herself off of Haru and landed on the ground in front of the downed dragon. “Can’t talk! Gotta fly!” And just like that, in a speeding rainbow, the pegasus took off, leaving a confused Haru behind. Although, the pegasus simply flew up into the air and hid herself into one of the clouds overhead. The dragon shrugged his arms and began to push himself off of the ground, a loud crinkling and squishing sound made him wince with every move. ‘No… No no no!’ Using his tail, Haru peeled off the bag of doughnuts from his backside – the look of anguish plastered on his face was the stuff of legend. ‘My poor breakfast! You were so young, I only took one bite from one doughnut from the dozen! Rainbow Dash! I swear to you that my breakfast shall be avenged!’ Hunger can be very dangerous, turning a usually level headed character like Haru into a being of vengeance. “Good morning Haru!” With his thoughts of revenge popped away, Haru blinked to realize that Pinkie Pie was trotting towards him. Before Haru said anything, the dragon used his tail to pull the crushed bag and toss it into one of the nearby trashcans, “Oh, yes, morning to you too Pinkie – Enjoying your day off?” Pinkie Pie stopped in her tracks and gasped, “How did you know that? AH! I get it! You’re not only a wizard, but you’re also a psychic! That’s amazing Haru! It’s like I learn something new about you every time I see you! Ooh! I bet that if I close my eyes, I’ll learn something else!” The pink mare closed her eyes for a few seconds before she opened them, “So! What did I learn?” “Uh, well, I’m not psychic,” Haru answered with a roll of his eyes. “I just helped out Mr. Cake this morning, and he told me it was your day off.” “WOW! That’s still something that I learned!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she hopped around Haru. “But, its a bit of a bummer that you aren’t psychic, cause that would make finding Rainbow Dash so much easier!” “Rainbow Dash?” Haru questioned as he looked up at the cloud overhead. Rainbow Dash was still hiding in the cloud overhead, she even had her head poked out and shook her head while mouthing something to Haru. An evil smirk crept on the dragon’s face as he nodded back to the pleading pegasus. “So, why do you need to find Rainbow Dash?” Haru asked with his calm look back on his face. “Oh, I just need a favor from her,” Pinkie explained with an equally innocent smile on her face, comparable to Haru’s. “But every time I try to talk to her, she’s busy. So, I learned that she’s got the next few days off, and I asked Mr. and Mrs. Cake to have the next few days off as well so I can get that favor!” ‘That’s kind of borderline stalker behavior,’ Haru thought to himself, but that evil smirk appeared back on his face. Simply pointing up with his right claw, the mystical dragon said, “Well, Pinkie, I may not be psychic but if you simply look up, then you’ll be able to find your rainbow.” Pinkie’s smile brightened even more when she looked up at the cloud above the two to see a long rainbow-colored tail sticking out from cloud. “Oh Rainbow Dash~!” With that slightly malicious call, Rainbow Dash rocketed out of the cloud, leaving a streaming rainbow behind the fleeing pegasus. Pinkie Pie just giggled and began to hop calmly in pursuit. Which left Haru with a small smirk on his face, soon his doughnuts would be avenged. TTTTTTT A little bit after setting Pinkie Pie to chase after the pegasus and snagging himself a piece of toast from a nearby café, Haru was aimlessly wandering around Ponyville. It was rather amazing that the populace had gotten used to seeing the red dragon walk around so quickly, then again, he wasn’t the first dragon that the town had seen before, and Spike was a real good first impression to the town’s folk on dragons. Eventually, Haru’s wandering had brought him near the town square pavilion – Where Haru had found his fellow dragon running about the area trying to pick up a few loose scrolls that were strewn about. However, whenever Spike picked up one of the scrolls, the small dragon hiccupped a large green flame that made the scroll disappear in a magical burst. In his time with Twilight and Spike, Haru learned that most of the time when the baby dragon used his green flame breath, the object that was engulfed in it wouldn’t get burnt. Rather, the item would be magically transported to Twilight’s teacher – Princess Celestia. Although, it was rather odd to see his fellow dragon send random scrolls, he knew for a fact that Spike didn’t have them when the two left the library this morning. With curiosity in his veins, Haru walked over to his fellow dragon who had just burned the last of the remaining scrolls accidentally, “Hey again Spike, what are you up to?” The smaller dragon turned around, and was about to speak, only hiccup and unleash a green flame at the older dragon. Haru merely turned to the side to dodge the flames, “If you didn’t want to talk, you just had to say so.” “N-No! I didn’t mean to do that,” Spike yelped as he waved his claws. “I just got scared into getting the hiccups!” “I thought it was ‘get scared to get rid of the hiccups’,” Haru mused to himself with a shake of his head. “Nevermind. So, how’d that happen?” “I was the target of a prank,” Spike explained, stifling a hiccup in the process. “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie make a dynamic pranking team!” A chill ran down Haru’s spine at that thought, ‘Holy Ishinomori! With the chaotic abilities of Pinkie and the fact that Rainbow might now have a grudge against me – This won’t end well.’ Haru shook his head, “So, they made you hiccup? That doesn’t sound too bad.” “Well, not for me really,” Spike replied with a nervous smile on his face. “But, Princess Celestia, not so much. She must be buried in blank scrolls about now.” “Spamming useless information, sounds like that can get annoying,” Haru muttered with a roll of his blue eyes. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, how can your dragon flames transport letters and such?” “You mean other dragons can’t?” Spike questioned with a slight tilt of his head. “I don’t know,” Haru replied with a shrug. “You’re technically the only other dragon I’ve met so far.” Spike closed his eyes in deep thought, but after a few seconds he opened his eyes with an inquisitive gleam in his eyes, “Well, I’ll have to ask Twilight about that later. But Haru, I just thought of two things.” “And what are those?” Haru asked as he took a seat at the pavilion’s stairs. “Can’t you breathe fire?” Spike questioned. “I’ve never seen you do it, wouldn’t that be useful against Phantoms?” “Actually, it wouldn’t,” Haru replied with a shrug. “I’m wearing a mask whenever I fight them, I’d probably just get the flames back in my face. And I suppose I should be able to breathe fire, I just haven’t seen a need to use it. My magic has it covered.” “Could you at least try it?” Spike requested. “I wanna see what kind of flames you can breathe!” With a roll of his eyes, Haru pushed him off of the steps and took a deep breath, “You know what? I’m curious too, but stand back.” Both dragons took a few steps away from the pavilion, with Spike a little bit away from the older dragon. Haru shook his head before he took a deep breath and held it for a second. Then, calling forth the fire deep within his body, Haru opened his mouth… … And a few medium sized clouds of smoke popped out as he wheezed between smoke clouds. After panting to get his breath back, Haru cleared his throat, “Okay, that was a bad idea.” “Haru, do you know how to breathe fire?” Spike asked as he walked up to his fellow dragon. Haru didn’t answer, instead he just turned his head and whistled a simple tune. Spike’s gaze didn’t waver, although it did dull slightly. The older dragon ceased his whistling and shrugged his shoulders, “Fine, I can admit it – I’ve never breathed fire before. But when I can use magic to control fire, water, earth and wind elements, as well as various spells, I think it’s a good trade off.” “Yeah, but breathing fire’s just awesome,” Spike retorted. “… Can’t deny that,” Haru admitted with a sigh following. “In any case, I need to get going Spike. See you back at the library later?” Spike nodded, “After I get more scrolls, that’s where I’m heading next. It’s getting close to lunch anyway.” At the mere mention of lunch, Haru’s stomach growled in protest, “Yeah, I’m hoping to get some lunch too. But this needs to take priority, so, just try to save me something, okay?” “Sure thing!” Spike announced as he watched Haru walk off. TTTTTT Pranks in Ponyville were actually very well received by most of its citizens, especially if they were just harmless. And most of the pranks caused by the newly dynamic duo of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were just that. Sure, it made for a little bit of an annoyance for Spike, but still just harmless fun. He wasn’t the only target of their pranks today though, especially when the two had just raided the local party and prank store. With a lovely bouquet of flowers left at Carousel Boutique’s door, Rarity was given a rather charming gift from what she probably thought was from a secret admirer. Unfortunately for her, when she stopped and sniffed the flowers, Rarity had unknowingly sniffed up a large amount of sneezing powder. As anyone could imagine, this led to the fancy unicorn to have a sneezing fit. The next victim of pranks was none other than Twilight, who was in the park jotting down notes in an empty scroll with Haru’s Unicorn in front of her. Unicorn was performing various tricks, including digging underground with its horn, which was interesting to the lavender unicorn. However, each time she turned away from her notes about Haru’s familiars, the ink that was written on the scroll faded away. How Pinkie and Dash managed to swap out her usual bottle of ink with invisible ink would always be a mystery. Although, considering that Pinkie was capable of bending reality, anything was possible. Back to the pranking, next on the list was Applejack – Or to be more general, Sweet Apple Acres. With the speed of a rainbow, the duo ponies had managed to pain a good portion of the apples on the farm into various colors and patterns. When Applejack had seen the result of the prank, and then the two other mares nearby snickering with paint palettes and berets, it didn’t take AJ long to realize what was going on. Thankfully, when Applejack was throwing apples at Pinkie and Dash, one of the apples had landed in one of the many water barrels. This allowed AJ to realize that the apples were only painted in harmless water colors. After getting chased off the apple orchard, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie found themselves at one of Ponyville’s lakes, setting up one of their pranks. With a fake squirting turtle toy, the two were laying in wait with a telescope to watch the other side of the lake where their trap laid. Pinkie Pie jumped around their hiding place with the squirter pad in her mouth while Rainbow Dash was looking through the telescope to see whom would fall for their trap. “Is anypony over there?” Pinkie asked excitedly, a slight squeak with each word. “Who’s getting squirt? Who’s getting squirt?!” Without even looking away from the telescope, Dash snickered loudly, “Target in sight! Fluttershy!” Pinkie’s eyes widened and she dropped the squirter, “What?! Nonononono! We can’t prank Fluttershy! She’s super sensitive! It’ll hurt her feelings! Even our most harmless prank!” The rainbow maned pegasus sighed loudly as she pulled away from the telescope, “Yeah you’re right. What we need is another victim, one made out of tougher stuff. “So, who’s it gonna be?” Pinkie Pie snickered to herself as she looked at Rainbow Dash. Calming herself slightly, Pinkie spoke, “Oh, I’ve got somepony in mind… One of the toughest around!” “Oh awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, not realizing that there was black ink around her left eye. “Who? Who?! Wait! I know who you’re talking about!” Pinkie snickered, realizing that she could keep her little prank on Rainbow Dash going on. “And who’s that?” “Who else?” Rainbow asked with her nose held up. “He’s the only guy who can even come close to my awesomeness – He’s still about a hundred and fifty percent short of reaching my level, but he’s still closer than others in town!” ‘Besides, it’ll be fun to have a karma prank for him!’ “Who’s that?” Pinkie asked with her head tilted. Rainbow Dash sighed again. TTTT ~ 20 Minutes Later ~ TTTT Haru didn’t know what he was looking at. One minute he was looking for a few more magical stones (only finding one in his current search), and when he was on his way back to the town, the sleek dragon couldn’t help but blink at the weird sight before him. In the middle of the road was a plain sugar doughnut that was on a fine little plate. Said plate was set upon a bunch of leafs that were expertly placed on the dirt road. “… Are you serious?” Haru looked left and right, looking at the bushes and trees. His blue eyes looked around until he spotted a puffy patch of pink poking out of a nearby bush, and a slight stream of rainbow slipping from a branch. The dragon shook his head, and was about to say something when his stomach growled loudly. ‘It’s an obvious trap, but it’s getting late for lunch – Luckily, I’ve got a way around this.’ “Sorry ladies,” Haru chuckled as he reached into his jacket, pulled out a ring and fitted it over his right hand. “But you’re going to have to do better than that.” Haru slipped his hand over his belt buckle, “EXTEND – PLEASE!” A runic circle appeared at the red dragon’s right, and he slipped his hand through it. His arm grew longer and slipped through the air until his claws reached the plate. “I was expecting something a little more creative than the old pitfall gag, especially from you Pinkie. Still, thanks for lunch.” Haru’s claws gripped the plate and he quickly lifted it up from the leaves. However, there was a loud snapping sound as Haru pulled the plate far enough, and the dragon could see a rather large string attached to the plate. The dragon’s eyes widened when suddenly the leafs pulled back and a white blur flew quickly the air. Before the dragon could react the white blur crashed into his face and made him stagger back a few feet. Laughter filled the air as a silver pie tin fell from Haru’s face, revealing that what had just crashed into his face was a banana cream pie. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie popped out of their hiding places to laugh loudly at the dragon now. “Lovely prank ladies,” Haru sighed as his arm retuned to normal, and he lifted the doughnut up to his banana cream-covered face. “But I still win in the end, because I have my doughnut.” However, before the dragon could even place his other claw on the doughnut, the small pastry bulged and then exploded into a patch of confetti and streamers that flew around his body. The two mares just laughed even louder as Haru used his free claw to whip off some of the pie filling off of his face. “That was *HAHAHAAHA* so awesome!” Rainbow Dash declared between laughs. “A double whammy!” Pinkie Pie added through her own laughter. “Yes, yes, a rather impressive joke,” Haru chuckled as he dropped the plate and began to clean his face. “But girls, let me warn you of something. Not everyone’s as good a sport at taking pranks.” “Oh come on, Wizard,” Rainbow Dash laughed as she trotted up to the dragon and elbowed him. “Everypony likes a good prank.” “Hey, I’m not saying anything bad about that,” Haru replied as he wiped off a dollop cream off of his nose. “I’m just saying that you have to pick carefully who and how you prank somepony, you never know how others will respond.” “Aw, you’re just being a sore loser,” Rainbow Dash retorted. Haru just sighed to himself. While the trio was discussing the finer points of pranking, from one of the clouds that floated above them, a shadowed figure gazed down upon them. The figure sighed loudly as their legs kicked back and forth off of the cloud, “Well, that was boring. I thought it’d take longer to find Rainbow Dash… It’s kind of hard to miss a pony that encompasses a full spectrum of colors in just their mane. “Oh well, I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining – compared to what I had to deal with beforehand, a little extra work shouldn’t be too hard to deal with.” TBC