//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: The Sun, the Moon and the Cushion // by Bunnybooze79 //------------------------------// Princess Luna quickly checked the castle below using the telescope. The burst of magical energy had been large and quick. A sign of either a powerful or very complex spell. It had been too quick for her to know exactly where its origins were. A quick scan revealed that none of the magical enchantments around vital parts of the castle had been disturbed. Neither the libraries, armory or vault were compromised. She observed the guards standing at attention around those locations, none of which seemed to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. She carefully checked any hidden corners and rooms near the vital parts of the castle. The look through the telescope would enable her to see anything strange. Changelings were still a problem that had not yet been resolved. For now it seemed that particular threat was not an immediate issue. Luna decided to check up on the ponies below. A look into one of the kitchens showed her that the staff was still busy clearing away the remnants of the party. It also showed that not all appetizers laced with poison joke had been consumed by the guests, evident by an involuntary tap dance currently being performed by a rather surprised mare in the kitchen. Other ponies simply gawked at her performance. She moved her attention away from the staff and guards and decided to check on the current guests. Out of worry she first looked into the room of the cutie mark crusaders. The three fillies were happily sleeping in the huge bed, much to the Princess’ relief. Nothing out of the ordinary could be seen as Luna carefully scanned the room. She moved her vision to another room. Applejack was also already fast asleep. The orange mare seemed to be snoring loudly, luckily the rooms were somewhat soundproof. Luna doubted very much that the earthpony would have anything to do with the burst of magic so she looked into the next room. Unlike the previous pony, this one was still awake. Rarity sat in front of the room’s vanity unit and carefully used her magic to cover her face with some kind of greenish substance. Luna had seen plenty of ponies do that before going to bed. She had never understood why they did that and would one day have to research the purpose behind that strange ritual. Despite the white unicorn using magic, Luna checked the next room. The energy involved in applying that stuff was too little to have been noticed by her earlier. The next guest was half awake. Luna observed Rainbow Dash beating her pillow into shape. Obviously the pegasus seemed not too thrilled with her bed and most likely would have preferred clouds to sleep on. A few punches later she rested her head on the now misshapen pillow and slowly began drifting back to sleep. There was no magic to be seen. A quick look into Fluttershy’s room merely revealed the mare lying in her bed sleeping. Even that seemed somehow to be graceful. Luna peered into the room next to Fluttershy’s. Its occupant was sitting in bed. Pinkie adjusted the nightcap on top of her head, a white and green soft woolen cap that barely managed to contain the pony’s poofy pink mane. Pinkie suddenly turned her head and briefly locked eyes with Luna. The Princess knew she couldn’t possibly know that she was being observed, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that Pinkie Pie was looking at her. Pinkie smiled and then turned away to slide under the covers. Once in place she again seemed to look at the Princess and waved, before closing her eyes and drifting to sleep. Luna observed the pink earthpony for a moment. Entirely unsure what to think of what she had just seen. She would one day have to investigate further and see if it had just been a coincidence or if Pinkie really knew that she had been watched. The next pony Luna viewed by means of telescope was the most likely candidate for performing a spell. Twilight Sparkle was lying in bed reading a book she had brought along. She was indeed using her magic to keep it floating in front of her eyes and turning the pages, but that wasn’t anywhere near the magnitude of what she had felt previously. Luna checked on Spike, only to see him sleeping soundly in his bed, a half-eaten donut lying beside him. A quick look to the other guests showed her nothing out of the ordinary either. That left one pony to check on. Princess Luna snorted with amusement as she observed her older sister. Celestia was still awake for the moment and preparing for her night’s sleep. That meant she was stuffing her ever flowing mane into a special hairnet. The sight was most unflattering and had almost never been observed by regular ponies. Luna watched as the ruler of all of Equestria conjured another hairnet for a tail. Princess Luna noted that the conjuring felt very similar to the burst of energy from before. Had than been it? Just Celestia’s hairnet? Shrugging Luna turned her attention away from the castle and observed the borders of Equestria once again. She still had her doubts and remained on high alert for the rest of the night, just in case there was something going on inside the castle. The night would remain quiet. ______________________________________________________________________ Three fillies groaned in unison as rays of light hit them suddenly. “Rise an’ shine!” Applejack pulled open the curtains in the room, bathing it in bright and warm sunlight. “Applejack? How did ya get in here?” Applebloom asked and rubbed her eyes with a hoof. Sweetie Belle let out a little yawn, while Scootaloo seemed intent of getting a few more moments of sleep by burrowing herself further under the cover. “Ya left yer door open.” Applejack explained and whipped off the cover from the three fillies. Scootaloo wasn’t too thrilled. “Just a few more minutes.” She moaned. “Can’t do that, Scootaloo. Ya got half an hour to get ready and meet us outside. Breakfast will kindly be supplied by Spike and eaten on the train. Dooonuuuuts.” Applejack teased the fillies with the last word in a sing-song voice. Sure enough the prospect of sugary delights made the fillies slowly clamber out of bed. Applejack left the room and left them to get ready. Silently they trudged into the adjoined bathroom and began brushing their teeth, still somewhat half asleep. Sweetie Belle glanced over to the large bathtub and noticed that it was full of water. “Who filled up the bathtub?” she asked with a mouthful of foam. “Maybe mah sister filled it up?” Applebloom carefully put the tip of her hoof into the liquid. “It’s hot.” “So who gets the first turn?” Sweetie Belle asked and spat out the foam from her mouth. “It’sh big enough for all of ush. Let’sh shusht go in togesher.” Scootaloo still had the toothbrush in her mouth. Seeing as the bathtub was made for alicorn proportions, three fillies had plenty of space inside. After finishing up with their dental hygiene, they hopped into the hot water. It wasn’t too hot and soon they were in the middle of an impromptu battle, splashing each other with the water. Since time was a factor, they stopped their little fight and quickly cleaned up. One by one they left the water and used the towels nearby to dry themselves off. Once they returned to their room they felt a strange tickling sensation as soon as they had passed through the door. “Ya feel that too?” Applebloom asked and looked to her friends. “Yeah, maybe because of the towels?” Scootaloo looked over her body to see if maybe something could be identified that was tickling her. “I…I think it’s getting worse.” Sweetie Belle remarked. As a unicorn she had a natural ability to pick up on magic whenever it happened, just like it was happening now. *FWOMP* *FWOMP* *FWOMP* The strange sound was soon replaced by loud shrieks as the crusaders saw the effect of a spell that had been activated. “What’s going on?” Scootaloo saw fur, nothing but fur. “We look ridiculous!” Applebloom moaned as she saw her friends. “I feel so….fluffy!” Sweetie Belle just sat on her haunches, using her forelegs to brush over her coat. The doors burst open as Rarity entered the room. She had heard the fillies shriek and had immediately come to their aid. Now she just stood there observing the strange sight before her. Where once three normal fillies had been sitting, now three large balls of fluff could be seen. Something had caused the coats of the crusaders to grow out to ridiculous proportions, long enough to almost hide their ears completely. Strangely it had not affected their manes or tails. Rarity took a deep breath to let out a shriek of her own as her other friends followed her into the room to see what was going on. Three sets of eyes blinked at them from amidst the long fluffy hair. The scream that Rarity had wanted to release never came, instead she started giggling at the sight. “What the hay happened here?” Applejack asked, while Rainbow Dash broke out in laughter at the sight of the crusaders. Spike and Pinkie Pie soon joined in with the laughter. Fluttershy just looked on in surprise the same as Twilight. “We don’t know! We jus’ had a bath and then felt somethin’ ticklin’ us.” Applebloom explained. “An’ would ya stop laughin’?” “I don’t think I can!” Rainbow Dash slowly approached the fluffy ponies. “This is just too funny. You guys look hilarious!” “I believe she means to say that you look adorable.” Rarity also approached the fillies. “Adorable? What’s going on here?” Sweetie Belle looked from one adult to the next, hoping for some kind of answer. “If we just put in a few ribbons and maybe use a curler, we could make you look just fabulous.” Rarity began using her hooves to try and flatten some of the coat of her younger sister. She loved styling ponies and this was an opportunity too good to pass up. “Ya can’t be serious! Who did this to mah sister?” Applejack looked over to Twilight, who merely nodded and decided to investigate the fillies with a bit of magic. “It’s the effect of a spell that much I can say for certain.” Twilight concluded after a brief scan. “You said you just had a bath and it happened?” “Yes, would you cut that out?” Scootaloo answered Twilight and gave Rainbow Dash a less than amused stare. The cyan pegasus had been laughing all this time. With considerable effort she stopped herself. “Sorry, but you look awesome. Scootafuzz, Sweetie Ball and Applefluff.” She gave the three a wide grin. “Perhaps it was something in the bathtub?” Twilight mused to herself and trotted over to the door leading to the bathroom. Pinkie followed her and had somehow put on a large detective’s hat and had a bubble pipe in her mouth. If there was a mystery to be solved, Pinkie would most certainly play her part to the fullest in solving it. Sweetie Belle groaned as Rarity began tying her long coat hairs together with ribbons. “Ya didn’t do anythin’ silly last night?” Applejack asked and circled the crusaders. “We jus’ went ta bed. We didn’t eat or drink anythin’ or even see anypony.” Applebloom explained and was hoping that Rarity would not try and put any ribbons on her, the one in her mane was more than enough. Twilight carefully examined the water in the bathtub with her magical abilities. “Strange. There is definitely a spell affecting the water, but it doesn’t seem to be complete.” She was talking to herself and ignored Pinkie Pie who carefully followed her every step. By extending her scan she noticed another trace of a spell in the doorframe. Concentrating on it she came to a conclusion. “It seems as if the missing parts of the spell in the water are here in the doorframe. Once somepony passes through the full effect takes place. Who would do something like that?” Twilight began to very carefully prod at the spell with her magic. Sometimes it was possible to find traces unique to each unicorn woven into the magic, akin to a magical hoofprint one could say. No matter how hard she tried, she could not find anything she was looking for in the spell. That meant it had to have been a unicorn of considerable power and knowledge. To her knowledge only a very few ponies would be capable of casting a spell without any traces. Her trail of thought was interrupted by a splash behind her. Alarmed Twilight turned around only to see Pinkie Pie standing in the bathtub. The water was just barely not deep enough to touch her belly. “Pinkie! What are you doing?” Without giving her an answer the pink pony jumped out of the water and hopped into the room with the others. *FWOMP* If anything she had just confirmed Twilight’s theory on how the spell worked. “Ya look ridiculous, sugarcube.” Applejack stated flatly as she stared at Pinkie Pie who now had very fuzzy legs. “But I don’t feel ridiculous!” Pinkie hopped over to the farmpony. “See?” As she ran her fuzzy foreleg over Applejack’s side, the orange mare burst out laughing. Fueled by her friend’s laughter Pinkie began rubbing her legs over the other mare. “Aaaahahaha, stop it!” The others watched as Applejack was desperately trying to get away from her tickle torturer, an impossible task seeing that it was Pinkie Pie. “It’s the water!” Twilight tuned out the laughing Applejack and explained the situation to the others. “Once it crosses the doorway the spell inside activates and causes….well that.” She pointed a hoof towards the fuzzy fillies. “Are they gonna stay like that?” Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight in turn used her magic again to find an answer. “It’s temporary.” She stated after a moment, much to the relief of the crusaders. “I guess it will fade away after a few hours.” “A few hours?” Scootaloo wasn’t too happy at the prospect of staying like this for any longer than necessary. “Wait, wait. Ya mean we have tah stay like this all the way to the train station?” Applebloom said while watching her sister still being tickled mercilessly by Pinkie Pie. “I am afraid so. I pulled the plug in the bathtub so at least nopony else will be affected.” Twilight explained. Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up at what her friend had said. Gears feverishly turned in the cyan pegasus’ head as she thought of a way to maybe cause a bit more entertainment. This was too good to just ignore. Unnoticed by the others she snuck into the bathroom and searched for a way to keep some of the water. Three beakers that had been used for brushing teeth earlier would have to do, she concluded after failing to see anything else to be used. Carefully she managed to fill one of them and half of the second one. The water had drained too fast for her to salvage anymore, but it was good enough for her next plan. Carefully balancing the beakers on her back she nonchalantly reentered the room with her friends. Twilight was trying to undo the spell, with no luck so far. Rainbow Dash set down the half full beaker on a table and casually walked up behind Rarity with the full one. She tipped some of the water out onto the unicorns back, it was only a small amount running down from Rarity’s neck, along her spine to her tail. The unicorn jumped back in surprise and turned on the now grinning pegasus. “What did you dooo?” she growled as she felt a tickling sensation. “Oh…..my….” *FWOMP* Rarity just stared at the ridge of hair along her spine. Rainbow Dash was waiting for her to shriek and flail about dramatically. To her disappointment the fashionista did no such thing. “You know, if I would dye this the same color as my mane it might actually look rather fetching. Maybe a ribbon or two, hmmmm.” Rarity walked over to a mirror to get a better view of her new look. Rainbow Dash frowned at the prank that had been a dud. Apart from Spike and Fluttershy none of the others had noticed yet what she was doing. That left her time to pick the next target. Fluttershy was off-limits when it came to pranking. She knew that her timid friend would not react well to even the most harmless of pranks. A few years ago that might not have stopped her, but she had changed in the past, mostly thanks to her friends. That left Spike. Rainbow Dash tipped a good amount over the chuckling little dragon, who ceased his mirth instantly. Rainbow watched carefully as the now wet dragon shook some of the water from his scales. Nothing happened. “Nice try Rainbow. Guess it only works on ponies or you know… hair?” Spike stated and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He tried to give the multicolor maned mare an angry glare, but couldn’t help smirking at the events around him. Rainbow Dash looked around for a new target. Pinkie already had been affected by the spell, as were the fillies. Applejack was on the floor still trying in vain to escape from the fuzzy torture. That left one target left. Rainbow Dash smiled. “Hey Twilight! Think fast!” Rainbow Dash hurled the rest of the water towards the unicorn. Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, Twilight did indeed think fast and put up a reflection spell in reflex. The water hit the shimmering barrier and was propelled back towards Rainbow Dash. She had not reckoned with something like that and had no chance to avoid the water. With a splash it hit her right in the face, soaking her entire head. “Oh, ponyfeathers….” *FWOMP* Scootaloo burst out laughing at the sight of Rainbow Dash’s fluffy head. The two other fillies joined in on the laughter as well as Spike and Pinkie who had now released Applejack from her grasp. The farmpony was lying on the floor trying to catch her breath, the sight of Rainbow Dash did not make that any easier. Even Rarity laughed at the backfired prank. “Oh no you don't, Rainbow.” Twilight gave the pegasus a smug grin. “I am not falling for something like that. Serves you right for trying to prank me.” Pinkie spied the other half full beaker standing on the table. It seemed unfair to her that Twilight was left out and she planned to rectify that oversight. With one smooth movement she grabbed the beaker and emptied its contents towards Twilight with a swing of her hoof. The unicorn had moved away from her position however so Pinkies initial targeted area was spared. With a splash the water hit Twilight’s flanks instead of her back. The unicorn jumped high into the air with surprise. It only took her a split second to realize what had just happened. *FWOMP* “Pinkie!” She gave the now giggling pink mare an angry stare. The laughter echoing around the room somewhat diminished her anger at her friend's actions. With a sigh she looked at her flanks. “You do know that we will have to go to the station like this, right?” “Hehe, ain’t a problem for me, Miss Fluffy Flanks.” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and hovered over to Scootaloo. “Come on Scoots, we’ll fly there without being seen.” A magical grasp on her tail held her in place. “Think again.” Twilight gave her friend an evil grin. “We’re in this together and you will walk, just like the rest of us.” “Heh, fine.” Rainbow Dash was curious as how other ponies would react to their current state. Besides, she could take a good prank and this one was really good in her book. “Any idea who did this?” Twilight asked and missed how the three fillies looked at each other. The fillies first thought had been that Princess Luna had a hoof in this prank. Still it was strange that she would wait until the morning and not have done this during the party or shortly thereafter. After packing up the rest of their things the ponies and dragon prepared themselves to leave the castle. They had already said goodbye to Princess Celestia before waking the fillies, so all that was left was to get to the station, quickly. __________________________________________________________________ Princess Luna was walking along a corridor in the second floor of the castle. Her duties had ended once her sister had raised the sun. Now she was on her way to a dining room to eat some breakfast or in her case a little snack before retiring to her room for some sleep. As she glanced out of the windows out to the courtyard she stopped in her tracks. A strange sight could be seen down there and it took a moment before she realized who those ponies down below were. She watched as three very furry fillies followed the adults out towards the exit. Two of them were no more than large balls of fur, the third one resembled a fuzzy hedgehog thanks to countless ribbons in her coat. The adults fared no better, but it made Luna chuckle as she saw the large fluffy flanks of her sister’s beloved student. All of them were hurriedly trotting away, trying in vain not to draw too much attention. Luna was at a loss for words. Then she remembered the burst of magic from last night. It wasn’t unreasonable to think that maybe somepony had decided to do a prank of their own. Luna’s eyes narrowed as she thought of the only pony in the castle capable of doing something like that. With a smirk she made her way towards her original destination. _____________________________________________________________________ The dining room was full, as was to be expected for this time. Luna saw a few nobles from last night, amongst a few new faces that had most likely arrived only this morning. Princess Celestia was sitting in her usual seat eating what appeared to be a crumpet. The chair opposite her was empty, reserved for her sister once she had finished her duties. Princess Luna greeted a few of the nobles within as she walked over to the buffet. A few slices of toast would be enough for her. While levitating it over to Celestia’s table she observed her sister carefully. Princess Celestia radiated an aura of calmness. No traces of the events from the night before could be seen in her features. Both of them knew full well that nopony would even dare to ask her about it, so it was quietly forgotten about. Then again, Luna knew that Celestia rarely forgot anything. Coupled with the burst of magic during the night and the sudden change in appearance of certain ponies, Luna was suspecting that her sister had been doing a little bit of pranking herself. “A fine morning to you, dear sister.” Luna greeted as she approached the table. “I trust you slept well?” “Good morning Luna.” Celestia nodded to her younger sister. “Indeed I had a very restful evening.” “The same could not be said about your student and her friends. I believe they are having what one would call a very bad hair day.” Luna very carefully watched her sister as she walked past to towards her seat. A small twitch in the corners of Celestia’s mouth told Luna everything she needed to know. “Oh, really? Well I think that problem shall subside in time.” Celestia avoided looking at her sister and levitated a large cup to her mouth. I bet you know exactly how long it will take, don’t you Tia? Luna carefully put down the toast she had been levitating on to a plate. While moving to sit down, she mentally went through various spells to insure that her sister would not be getting any ideas of trying to prank her while she slept. She would have to cast a spell reacting to movement, maybe even set up a few charged crystals to block any magic cast from afar. It seemed she would be up a while longer to prevent herself from falling into any traps. Then Luna sat down. * FFFFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPTPTTTTPTPTPPTPPTTTTBPBPBPTBTTTTT* Luna sat rigid in her seat. The entire room had become silent as a tomb. Very slowly she lifted her gaze towards her sister. Celestia still had her muzzle buried in the large cup, one look at her eyes told Luna that she was most likely grinning like a foal. So your revenge has been had. Well done, sister. This round goes to you. Luna’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted. The sound of the whoopee cushion on her seat was not the only sound to erupt in the quiet room. From a table in one of the corners another eerily familiar sound could be heard. “Hhhhhnngngngngngnngg.”