//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: The Sun, the Moon and the Cushion // by Bunnybooze79 //------------------------------// Scootaloo was lying on her belly on the carpet in their room. Its fluffiness did not bring her any real comfort as she watched Sweetie Belle pace about with worry. Applebloom merely sat on the bed also watching their friend. All three had taken off their dresses and were back to their usual appearances. “What do we do? I don’t want to go into the Everfree forever. I want to stay in Ponyville with my family. I don’t even have my cutie mark yet.” Sweetie Belle was rambling to herself, taking gulping breaths of air between sentences. “That won’t happen. Remember that Luna said she would be on our side if anypony found out what we did. She won’t let us be banished to anywhere.” Scootaloo mumbled up from the carpet. “Besides, nopony knows that we did it.” “Twilight might know.” Sweetie Belle stopped her pacing and sat down in front of the prone pegasus. “Did you see the way she kept looking at me during dinner?” “I kinda missed that, sorry.” Scootaloo had been too busy eating and listening to Rainbow Dash’s awesome explanation of various aerial stunts that the Wonderbolts performed. “She knows it was me that put that whoopee cushion on Celestia’s seat.” Sweetie Belle was slightly shaking. “She will send me away.” Her voice cracked on the last word and tears began to well up in her bright green eyes. Scootaloo sat up and put a hoof on her friends shoulder. “As long as nopony tells her it was you, she will never find out.” “Are ya sayin’ we should lie if she asks?” Applebloom had been silent since their return to the room, too wrapped up in her own thoughts on the evening. “Ah can’t lie to Twilight. She’s one of mah sister’s best friends, that’s like lying to mah sister herself.” “Well….if somepony asks us we say we all did it.” Scootaloo said and stuck a hoof out and looked at her friends in turn. “If, then we get banished together.” Sweetie Belle smiled at the Pegasus and lifted her own hoof to lay on Scootaloo’s. “Together.” Applebloom sat on the bed and did not move for the longest moment. She watched her two friends on the floor looking up to her, waiting for her to join in. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow questioningly, as the earthpony sat motionless. Finally Applebloom hopped down from the bed and put her hoof on her friend’s hooves. “Together.” The fillies jumped back in shock as three knocks pounded on the door. Before any of them could say something, Twilight Sparkle barged inside with Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash following her. Nopony spoke as Twilight stood before the cutie mark crusaders, giving each one a long and angry glare. Her voice was frosty when she finally spoke. “You girls wouldn’t happen to know anything about the strange occurrences this evening, would you?” A few seconds passed in silence. Twilight kept shifting her look from one crusader to the next, while their guardians stood by watching carefully. Finally the fillies nodded. “We did it.” Scootaloo spoke for them quietly. “I KNEW IT!” Twilight’s sudden outburst made them flinch back with ears folded down. “Ah don’t believe it.” Applejack’s jaw fell open. “Sweeite Belle! How could you?” With a hoof pressed against her chest, Rarity took a step backwards in shock. “You have got to be kidding me….” Rainbow Dash had merely mumbled her response to the unexpected revelation. She facehoofed and momentarily obscured her face from the other ponies. “You girls are in so much trouble now. I will make sure that….” Twilight’s rant was cut short before it had even properly begun. “Eh eh eh! We had an agreement, Twi!” Applejack moved between Twilight and the fillies. “Leave this to us.” For a moment Applejack thought that Twilight would go back on the agreement and start chastising them again. The farmpony wanted to avoid her friend from punishing her sister and friends, partly because it was her own duty as the older sibling and in part for her fear that Twilight might overdo it and scar them for life with irrational fears of lectures, essays or studying. “Fine.” Twilight grumbled, but kept giving the fillies a very angry look. “Applebloom, go into mah room. Sweetie Belle, yer goin’ into yer sister’s room and Scootaloo into Rainbow’s. Ya’ll wait fer us there.” Applejack motioned the fillies to get a move on with a shooing motion of her hoof. “How did you do those things during the party?” Twilight asked as the three moved past her, heads bowed low. “Poison Joke.” Scootaloo simply answered and continued out of the room. Sweetie Belle began whimpering halfway through the door, while Applebloom glanced nervously back at her sister. Once they had left the room Twilight turned to Applejack. The twitch in the unicorns eyes and ears was still present. “You really should let me teach them what was wrong about the things they did here tonight.” “No Twilight. It’s our responsibility seein’ as we’re the ones that brought ‘em along in the first place.” Applejack put a hoof down to make a point. Its effect was lost however as she was standing on the thick plush carpet that muffled any sound made. It really was a very nice fluffy carpet. “Applejack is right. As her sister I shall make sure she sees the error of her ways.” Rarity brushed a few imaginary specks of dust from her gown, mentally planning out how to talk to Sweetie Belle. Applejack turned her attention to Rainbow Dash, who had been rather quiet thus far. “Ya think ya can handle talkin’ ta Scootaloo? If ya want Ah can…” Applejack began. “Nah. I can handle a little filly.” Rainbow Dash stated flatly. “Ok then.” Applejack ushered her friends out of the room. Once outside she turned to Twilight. “Relax Twi, we’ll take care of everythin’. Ya can go back the party. There won’t be any unexpected things happenin’ no more.” Twilight merely nodded and trotted away. The country mare sighed at her friends retreating form, hoping that she would calm down. An agitated Twilight was not something easily dealt with. Rainbow Dash had already left towards her room, while Applejack and Rarity shared an affirmative nod. The next few minutes would most likely not be very pleasant. ________________________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash took the opportunity, on route to her room, to take off her dress. The party was pretty much over anyway, for her at least. Had the Wonderbolts been there she would have rejoined later, seeing that that wasn’t the case she might as well have an early night’s sleep, after she had dealt with Scootaloo. As she entered her room she spotted the little pegasus immediately. Scootaloo stood in the middle of the room, her head held high, little wings outstretched on her back and seemingly prepared to receive whatever punishment would be coming to her. Rainbow Dash admired the little one’s attitude, it reminded her a lot of her younger years. The cyan pegasus’ dress was unceremoniously flung over the closest chair, her shoes, headdress and necklace soon followed. She tapped the clasp in her hair three times with a hoof and felt her hair extensions coming loose instantly. It had been a gift from Rarity, who during Gala preparations had been driven to the brink of madness while trying to tame Rainbow Dash’s trademark multicolored mane. The little clasp magically wove in the extensions and placed a very fine invisible hairnet over the rest of her mane. That’s how Rarity had described it to her at least and was able to form it into something more elegant. Rainbow Dash ran a hoof through her mane and it was back to its usual wild spiky form. She trotted over to where Scootaloo stood, who had silently watched her all this time. “Ok Scoot, let’s get this over with. Turn around and present flank.” Scootaloo blinked as her jaw slightly dropped. She had reckoned with being told off, but the thought of other means of punishment had not occurred to her. She knew that some foals were spanked when misbehaving, something she had not experienced thus far. Her caretaker in the orphanage had sent Scootaloo once or twice to bed without supper or had doubled her chores for a week, but never would have raised a hoof to one of her orphans. Scootaloo swallowed a lump in her throat as Rainbow Dash came closer. Perhaps she deserved it, after all they had more or less sabotaged the party and pulled a prank on the ruler of all of Equestria. Still it pained her that it would have to be Rainbow Dash of all ponies that would punish her. “Come on, come on. I don’t have all day.” Rainbow Dash said impatiently as she stood in front of Scootaloo. With minor hesitation the filly turned around, hung her head low and closed her eyes, bracing herself for what would some next. She felt Rainbow Dash move closer. “Awww, ponyfeathers. I really hoped you’d have gotten your cutie mark in pranking this evening.” Scootaloo opened her eyes and whipped her head around to look at the grinning pegasus behind her. “You…you’re not mad at me?” she asked and turned around. “Mad at you? Are you kidding? I haven’t laughed this much since the time Pinkie sat on an anthill.” Rainbow Dash chuckled at the memory. “Pranking the entire party and even pranking Celestia? That takes guts, Squirt.” Scootaloo giggled as her mane was ruffled by the larger pegasus. She felt her anxiety fade away and her body relax as it was clear that Rainbow Dash would not be punishing her in the way she had feared. “For a moment I thought you would give me a spanking for what we did this evening.” Rainbow Dash’s smile faltered a bit. “I’d never do that, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash had some experience in that form of punishment. She sure enough had received it plenty of times during her childhood and knew that it hadn’t stopped her misbehaving, if anything her rebellious nature had been fueled by it instead. Perhaps it worked for some ponies, but she was against it. “Though I am kinda disappointed that you didn’t let me in on the plan. I bet I would have had a few good ideas myself.” Her grin came back as she moved beside the filly, draping a wing over her. “Still, while I may be cool with it all, some ponies aren’t too happy right now.” she continued. “Like Twilight.” Scootaloo stated the obvious. “Yeah, like Twilight. She isn’t too happy that you pranked Celestia. I get where she’s coming from, I wouldn’t like something like that happen to somepony that I looked up to very much either. Would you?” Scootaloo could indeed see what Rainbow Dash was saying. She would have also been less than thrilled if somepony had pulled a prank like that on Rainbow Dash or one of her friends. “Sorry.” She apologized. Rainbow Dash squeezed the filly with her wing. “Best not to go around pranking Princesses anymore, Squirt.” “I won’t.” Scootaloo said and nuzzled against her surrogate sisters side. “Thanks Rainbow Dash.” “Don’t mention it, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash briefly nuzzled the filly’s mane. “Now go back and get some sleep. We gotta get up early tomorrow morning.” Rainbow Dash released the filly from her embrace and ruffled her mane once more for good measure. “Oh and if Twilight should ask about your punishment…..let’s just tell her that I gave you something horrible to do, ok?” “Like cleaning the orphanage for two weeks?” Scootaloo suggested. “Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. Let’s just say I made you do that.” Rainbow Dash watched the giggling filly trot out of her room. Once the door closed she jumped into bed and kept replaying some of the events from this evening in her mind. She would keep laughing for quite some time. _____________________________________________________________________ Sweetie Belle sat on Rarity’s bed, a pillow clutched to her chest in hopes it would absorb some of her nervous shaking. Her eyes were on the verge of shedding tears, already a sniffle or two could be heard. Rarity stormed into the room, seemingly appalled that her younger sister would be involved in all that mess. A quick burst of magic closed the door behind her as she walked up to the bed. “What were you thinking, Sweetie Belle? Of all the things you have done in the past, this time you went too far!” The angry tone of Rarity’s voice worked like a whip, every other word made the filly flinch back. One look into the older unicorns face and seeing the anger and disappointment in her eyes was enough to break the dam holding back her tears. With a loud wail Sweetie Belle let them fall into the pillow she was holding. “I’m…..s-so sorryyyyy.” She stammered between loud sobs. Rarity winced at the sounds and sight of the little unicorn. She hated seeing her sister like this, regardless of what she may have done. After a long sigh she climbed on the bed herself and sat beside her little sister. She only briefly touched her when immediately Sweetie Belle let go of her pillow and latched on to her sister with a shaky hug. Rarity’s face scrunched up briefly knowing that her dress was being soaked by tears. She shook her head to dislodge that thought, it was her sister crying after all. “Do you mind telling me why you did that this evening?” she asked calmly. It took a few minutes before Sweetie Belle was able to answer her. Of all the crusaders young Sweetie Belle was certainly the most emotional and also vulnerable to harsh criticisms. She reminded her of Rarity when she was younger. “I never planned to put that whoopee cushion there.” She finally squeaked out. “You? You put that there? What in Equestria had possessed you to do such a thing?” Rarity was shocked to learn that it had been Sweetie Belle of all ponies that had put that device into place. “I…I just wanted him to sit on it.” “Him? Who is him?” “That Prince.” “Blueblood? Why did you want him to sit there?” “Because he never fell for any of the other things we had set up. I just wanted to get him.” Sweetie Belle said with her head still buried in Rarity’s chest and the occasional sob causing her little shoulders to shudder. “Why would you want to prank him, if I may ask?” Rarity’s outrage had very much been replaced by confusion at this point. “Because he was mean to us. He was mean to you. You kept saying how he had ruined your first Gala and everytime somepony would mention him you would become angry or sad. I just wanted to get him for doing that to you.” Sweetie explained quietly. “I never wanted the Princess to get it instead. And now she is going to banish meeeeheheeee.” Fresh tears were shed and the little unicorn buried her head further into Rariy’s dress. The larger white unicorn sat motionless for a moment, too startled by Sweetie Belle’s motivations. Then she wrapped her forelegs around the quivering little unicorn and soothingly ran a hoof through her two-toned curly mane. “Nopony is banshing you anywhere.” She said and waited for the words to sink in. “I see now why you did it. I guess I did play a part in this entire fiasco.” Rarity waited until her sister had calmed down. She released her from her embrace and positioned herself to be able to look at her face. The tears had left streaks on the filly’s cheeks and her eyes were red from all the crying. Rarity avoided looking down at her dress, well aware that most of the tears would have ended up there. For the moment that wasn’t important. “It was unladylike for me to harbor any animosity towards that oaf. Holding on to something like that isn’t worth the energy and I have as much fault as you do in the proceedings this evening.” Rarity smiled down at her sister. “Y…you are not angry?” she hesitated to ask. “No, I am not. You know that what you did was wrong, but you also admitted that you never wanted to do that to the Princess.” “So I am not getting punished?” Sweetie Belle cast a hopeful look up to her sister. Rarity was in a bit of a tough position. While true that Sweetie Belle’s motivation was a result of her own faults at not being able to let go of something in the past, she had also caused havoc amongst a lot of ponies during the party outside in the garden. The pranks having affected ponies that had nothing to do with the animosity towards Prince Blueblood were worthy of punishment. Then again Rarity had shamelessly exploited the effects herself in form of Fleur’s inability to lie. She had learned about Hoity Toity lying to her and trying to cheat her out of money. As a bonus she had also learned some really juicy gossip about other high class ponies. All in all the events had proven very favorable to the fashionista. She carefully wiped away some of the tears from the little filly's face on the bed and gave her an encouraging smile. “I do believe you have been punishing yourself enough.” She put a hoof under Sweetie Belle’s chin and raised her head a little. “I know that you had good intentions, but you also know that what you did wasn’t the best course of action.” “I know.” Sweetie Belle confirmed and gave a hopeful smile. “Don’t worry about it any longer, my dear. One day we’ll look back on this evening and laugh about it. No more tears, okay?” “Okay.” Sweetie Belle gave her big sister a smile, the first in a long time this evening. “I am sorry about your dress.” Rarity purposefully avoided looking down to her dress where no doubt her sister’s crying had left an unseemly stain. It could be fixed easily at a later time. “Don’t worry about that either. Just promise me you won’t be doing something like this again.” “I promise.” Sweetie Belle wrapped her little forelegs around her sister’s neck and hugged her. Rarity returned the hug immediately and they remained like that for a few moments. “Time to go back to your friends, Sweetie Belle. We have to get up early and we all could use a good night’s sleep after tonight.” They finally broke the hug and Sweetie Belle yawned a little, confirming that everything thus far had indeed been taxing for the little unicorn. Rarity watched her leave the room with a quick good night wish. Once she had left, Rarity glanced down to her dress and let out a small groan. __________________________________________________________________ Applejack entered her room with hesitation. She never liked having to punish her little sister for the trouble she sometimes caused. She was way more lenient with Applebloom than some parents were with their own children. It was largely due to the fact that Applejack herself had a rather stressful upbringing, void of a lot of fun. Since her parents had passed away when she was young she was forced to do her part on the farm to keep it afloat. Granny Smith had then already been unable to help with any of the harder work on the farm, so she and her brother had taken over that part. She had been robbed of many things in her childhood and had silently vowed not to rob her little sister of any of those things. Applejack encouraged her to have fun and to do well in school to maybe one day go to university. She made sure she was healthy and could have her free time with her friends. All things she had to give up for the sake of keeping the farm. So it was with a heavy heart that she would now have to punish her sister for the chaos she had stirred. The orange farmpony trotted up to her little sister, who was sitting close to the door. She had her head bowed low and carefully watched the older mare walk up to her. “So…” Applejack sat down in front of her and took off her trademark hat. “Ya wanna tell me where ya got that Poison Joke from? ‘Cause if ya went to Zercora’s and took it yer gonna be in a lot more trouble.” “No, no. Ah didn’t take it from anypony. Somepony gave it to us.” Applebloom hastily replied. “Somepony gave it to ya? And ya just took it? What did Ah tell ya about takin’ things from ponies ya don’t know?” Applejack was worried now that some shady character had been near her sister. “It wasn’t somepony we didn’t know.” Applebloom’s quick reply didn’t help to clarify anything, evident by Applejack’s confused look. “Then who gave it to ya? Was it Rainbow or Pinkie? Ya better tell me the whole story.” Applejack gave her little counterpart a stern look. “It wasn’t either of them.” With a sigh Applebloom began to explain what had happened. “We got bored and decided ta explore the castle. After a while we found the kitchen where all them small snack were jus’ waitin’ ta be tasted. After tryin’ a few we began goofin’ around and Ah may have thrown a pie into Princess Luna’s face.” “Ya did WHAT!?” Applejack sat wide-eyed as her jaw dropped open. Applebloom was quick to continue her tale before she could say anymore. “But she wasn’t angry or anythin’. We asked her what she was doin’ there in the kitchen, when Sweetie Belle found the Poison Joke that the Princess had been carryin’. She then asked if we would help her with somethin’ important, so we said yes. We put a drop of the stuff on them snacks like she told us to.” Applejack simply stared at her sister. The new facts were surprising to say the least. “And the whoopee cushion?” “Princess Luna gave it to us as well.” Applebloom gave a small smile to see if her big sister was mad or not. The farmpony just stared at the filly, momentarily trying to piece all the pieces together. “Am I going to get punished for this?” the filly asked after a moment of silence. Applejack sighed and donned her hat once again. Then she smiled at the little filly. “Under normal circumstances Ah would make ya to double chores around the farm fer two weeks and there would be no more crusadin’ in that time either. However, seein’ as ya were actin’ under royal orders and such….. Ah’d say ya ain’t getting’ punished.” Applejack briefly ruffled her sisters red mane, causing the little filly to sigh with relief. “Ya know it ain’t right to go prankin’ on the Princess right?” she asked. “Of course Ah do. Ah won’t be doin’ somethin’ like that again, that’s fer sure.” “Good ta hear. Ah have ta be honest, Ah actually had a lot of fun this evenin’. Seein’ all them high class ponies behavin’ silly while tryin’ ta behave as if nothin’ was goin’ on.” Applejack laughed along with Applebloom for a few moments. “What about Twilight? She seemed really mad at us.” Applebloom noted after the laughter had died down a bit. “Don’t worry about Twi. If she is still mad at ya, Ah’ll have a talk with her and explain everythin’.” Applejack reassured her sister. “Why don’t ya go back to yer friends and see how they are doin’?” Applebloom agreed to do just that and after saying good night to her big sister, she left the room. Applejack chuckled as she trotted over to her bed and began to take off her dress. It was getting late and she usually was in bed fairly early, today would be no exception. _________________________________________________________________ High above Canterlot, Princess Luna stepped away from the telescope for a moment and smiled. She had been carefully observing the crusaders once she noticed Twilight Sparkle’s interest in them. As she feared her sister’s student had figured out that the fillies had part in this evening’s entertainment. She had watched the confrontation in the crusader’s room and the resulting talks being held in their respective guardian’s rooms. Had any one of the fillies been unfairly punished, she would have teleported down instantly to explain everything. To her surprise none of the guardian’s had acted in any disagreeable manner. The bonds and understanding shown to her made her think back to times long past, when she had a very similar bond to Celestia. She shook her head clear from ancient memories. There was still the matter of Twilight Sparkle. Luna carefully searched the rooms until she found the lavender unicorn pacing around in her room, a purple dragon watching her with a frown. __________________________________________________________________ “I mean, how could they do such a thing? To the pony who holds all our fates in her hooves? It just boggles the mind how three fillies could be so….so foolish.” Twilight was ranting and pacing about in her room. Spike had been unfortunate to be on his way to his own room, when he had bumped into her. Needing somepony or in this case somedragon to vent to, Twilight had dragged him into her room. Spike had heard it all before, in fact he had heard the same thing now for the fourth time as Twilight kept repeating herself more and more. “Oh, would you just relax Twilight!” he moaned and rolled his eyes. “Relax? Relax! I will not relax! Not until I am absolutely certain that those three know exactly what they did wrong!” Twilight paced back and forth, ears twitching and seemingly unable or unwilling to calm down. “Why are you so worked up about this? They are just fillies, of course they will do some silly things every once in a while.” “Silly things!?” Twilight stopped her pacing and just gaped at her assistant. “Embarrassing the Princess is not a silly thing!” “She seemed cool about it. Why can’t you?” Spike asked and folded his arms in front of his chest. He knew very well that Twilight would easily go crazy over the smallest things if Celestia was somehow involved. “Because one just doesn’t prank the Princess and get away with it!” “You did.” Spike countered with a smirk. “I…I what? I never did anything of the kind!” Twilight protested with outrage. “Oh, come on! You pulled the exact same prank on her when you were younger!” He pointed a claw accusingly at the unicorn. “I may have been small, but being a dragon helps to remember those things.” Dragons matured in their own way. Their brains would develop faster than their bodies would and as such had excellent memory from a very early age on. Something that came in handy when one was an assistant to a unicorn who regularly forgot where she had placed her books. “I did not do that in front of a full dinner table!” Twilight tried to justify her actions as a young student. “I did that within the confines of a private reading room.” “Psh, so it was on a smaller scale. But you did all kinds of things to the Princess and she never was angry about it! She even laughed.” “That was all for scientific research purposes!” Twilight’s anger subsided slowly. “Preparing a bucket full of water above the door, waiting for the Princess to walk through only to have it drop on her head was for scientific research?” Spike raised an eyebrow. “Yeeees.” Twilight struggled to remember what she had been trying to research. “I believe I wanted to see how long it took her to evaporate the water out of her mane.” “Really? And how long did that take?” “Two point four five seconds I think. I would have to check my old research papers.” Twilight made a mental note to do just that things once they were back in Ponyville. “Don’t you think you should cut them a little slack? Perhaps they were trying to get their cutie marks in scientific research themselves.” It was a farfetched idea and both of them knew it, but Twilight did chuckle at the thought. She sighed and sat down on her haunches. “I guess you’re right. Perhaps I did work myself up over it all.” “You think?” Spike’s reply was dripping with sarcasm. “If Princess Celestia is ok with it, I guess I should be too. Thanks Spike, for making me see that.” Twilight trotted over to the dragon and gave him a hug. She was grateful that her assistant was sometimes more levelheaded than she was. “Glad you came to your senses. Now if you will excuse me, I have a sapphire and ruby donut waiting for me in my room.” __________________________________________________________________ Princess Luna smirked at the exchange she had just witnessed. It was very interesting to know that Celestia’s prized student had tried pranking her mentor. That was something Luna would have to investigate a bit further at another time. For now she turned her attention back to the borders of Equestria and resumed her nightly duties. A while later a surge of magical energies inside the castle took her attention.