Before I could even react, Rarity's horn flashed with black power and with a series of clangs and crashes, every pony present was imprisoned in cages. Even Discord was trapped; yawning, he snapped his claws and teleported out of the cage, but then instantly reappeared back inside his prison. He tried again and again; but each time was met with the same result. Unwilling to give up, he tried many things, even attempting to chainsaw through the bars, but nothing worked.
I stood in my own cage quietly, trying to come to terms with what 'Rarity' had told me. I couldn't believe my two friends were simply gone, lost just like that; Luna, after all, had been freed after 1000 years of the darkness. Rarity might not be as strong as the princess of the night, but she certainly came close.
Rainbow, Applejack and several other ponies were putting their brawn into busting out, but it was all useless; these were magical cages and could not be escaped by any physical or magical means.
The princesses were standing calmly, eyes closed, deep in thought (though it must be difficult to concentrate with Discord attempting to blow up his cage with manifested TNT).
Rarity walked over to me, smiling, and my cage vanished. Rarity grabbed me with her magic, shackled me, and then threw the end of my chain at Pinkie.
"Time for your sacrifice, little pony." sneered Rarity. Pinkie said nothing, just clipped my chain onto her leg and half dragged, half led me away.
She pulled me into town hall and slammed the door, pulling the bolts across.
I cowered in a corner, but then Pinkie turned to face me with a huge friendly grin on her face. I wondered fleetingly whether this was some kind of sick deception, meant to make me think Pinkie was back, but then Pinkie yelled, "Surprise!" and produced her party cannon from nowhere. Somehow, this was Pinkie.
"Were you surprised? Huh? Were you?" Pinkie was jumping up and down now, her mane fluffed out in her excitement. But... she was still grey.
"Pinkie... I thought the darkness possessed you... and you were absorbed by it..."
"Oh, uh..." Pinkie's face fell. "I just ruined it, didn't I guys?
There were a series of loud, exasperated groans from outside, the bolts slid open and Rarity walked in, her mane still grey and colourless. "Pinkie, I can't believe I did all this; acted so evil, turned my mane this ghastly colour, just for you to ruin the whole thing right when it was going to get fun."
"Ruin... what?" I was totally bemused.
"Oh, darling." said Rarity, shaking her head; grey dust sprinkled out, and patches of purple appeared. "We really had you going there, didn't we? Discord, I think you'd better sort us out..."
Discord swapped Rarity and I's horns, transferred over the alicorn wings, and then took a few inches off Rarity's height and gave them to me. Rarity levitated the tiara of Magic over to me.
"Okay. Somepony, please, tell me what theHAY is going on!" I yelled forcefully.
"Just go out there, darling." Rarity nudged me out of the door onto the podium outside town hall. All of the ponies, including the princesses, yelled, "FOOLED YOU!"
"You mean..." I was beginning to grasp what was going on. Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow came over to stand with Rarity, Pinkie and I and they nuzzled me jokingly.
I turned on them. "You mean... this was all a PRANK!?!"
"Pretty much." said Rainbow.
"You see, darling, the princesses let us know that you'd been talking to yourself and worrying a lot about your responsibilities, so we decided to lighten you up with a good prank... we originally planned just to swap species, but then our cutie marks suddenly changed too, the night before you got back..."
"That was my fault." I said embarrassedly, but Applejack interrupted.
"Discord was all too happy to help us, and he swapped our species jus' over a week ago, to give us all a chance to learn to use wings, and magic and all."
"And... Spike?"
"Age spell." said Celestia offhandedly.
"You were in on this?" I said incredulously. "Luna, you too?"
The princesses giggled. "It is many centuries since we have pulled off a prank this big, Twilight Sparkle. It was a lot of fun."
I was still disbelieving. "But, the magical blast when Rainbow lost her horn... and the Rainbooms..."
"Magical illusions. Quite advanced ones, but not impossible." said Luna
"All the broken bones..."
"Sound effects and false limbs."
"The 'darkness'- the way I had to fight my way out..."
"Also illusions and magic. Discord helped." said Fluttershy proudly. The draconequus looked sheepish.
"The army of rabbits?"
"Um... well, that wasn't planned..." admitted Fluttershy.
"Spike smashing up Baltimare."
"Ummm... yeah, that actually happened. But it doesn't matter, they all knew it was going to happen. We evacuated them and everything of value first. And Celestia's been helping with rebuilding since then." said Rainbow.
"Fluttershy knocking you out?"
"Also unplanned." said Rainbow, shooting Fluttershy an I'll get you later look.
"Ok." I breathed deeply. "I understand you thought I was really worried and wrapped up in my new responsibilities. But why in the wide, wide world of Equestria did you think putting me in a huge, stressing, albeit faked, situation would help?
"Oh! I know!!" cried Pinkie. "Wait... no I don't... I don't know why we ever thought this was a good idea."
"Admit it though, that was the best prank ever, right?" said Rainbow, nudging me.
"Um... yeah... if it wasn't really dangerous and embarrassing! I can't believe I didn't realise what was happening!" I cried.
Rarity smiled at me. "Oh, well, you know now. But it was really fun watching you react to everything we put you through..."
"Yeah, and I got to kiss Rarity!" chimed Spike, staggering over, sporting a livid purple bruise on his head. Rarity looked at him and raised her eyebrows. Spike just grinned, just happy that he could look her in the eyes properly.
"That reminds me." Celestia zapped Spike with a spell and he shrunk back down to normal size.
"Awww..." he grumbled.
I chuckled at the look on his face, then turned to the crowd of ponies looking up at me. "So you were all in on this?"
"YEAH!" they yelled.
Despite myself, I started to laugh.
It was an event I'd look back on for many centuries after. A few days after the prank was revealed, I stood with my six friends on a high cliff. The three of us who had wings smiled in unison before Rainbow threw herself off the edge, followed by Fluttershy and I. We spiralled upwards together, and simultaneously tipped into a vertical dive. Spike, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie stood below, watching us.
Just as they had all those years ago, multiple Rainbooms blazed across the sky. But this time, they were real.
THE END