The Prank

by Pickleless


Element of Mischief. (Pickleless)

“So you’re courting Twilight Sparkle?” Bucky stated. He scowled, trying to make a decent looking glass orb.

“Yes, that is one of the reasons I’m here,” Stupid continued to transform grass into birdseed, calmly moving around Bucky.

“And you have no other motives?” Bucky eyed the changeling.

“I never said I have no other motives. I simply told you I was courting Twilight Sparkle.” The changeling scooped birdseed into a sack he carried.

Bucky grimaced and turned towards the changeling, lighting up his horn “Keep in mind I am not your friend, I am tolerating you. You saved my Pina, that is the reason why we’re talking and you’re not confined.”

“Once again,” the bug sighed, “your daughter would have not been in trouble if I hadn’t wandered by. I am a bit of a trouble magnet. I’m sure that pillar would have never broken if I didn’t go near your school.”

“Why were you at my school?” Bucky inquired.

“The same reason everyling goes to school. To learn, of course.”

“What do you wish to learn?” Bucky softened, he couldn’t help but respect the desire to learn.

“Whatever a changeling like me has to learn from ponies like you,” Doll simply stated, transforming more grass.

Bucky sighed. He realized he wasn’t going to get a straight answer from the crooked changeling. He tried a different approach. “What form of magic do changelings use?”

“Necromancy and Alteration. Simultaneously. Our minds and body are naturally geared towards using master levels of both, at the cost not being able to use anything else.” Stupid scooped up more birdseed into his bag. “This is why I can transform grass into birdseed with no effort, but I must scoop it up by hoof.”

Bucky’s blood ran cold. “Necromancy? Explain.”

“Necromancy, as you probably know, can regrow or fixed damage body parts. We burn away ourselves, while growing back the form we wish to be. It’s easy to get the exact form we want due to alteration magic. As I said, simultaneously.” The changeling morphed into the spitting image of Bucky, speaking in his voice, “What you don’t know, is necromancy-”

“Lets demons escape from tartarus,” Bucky growled.

“Ah, so you do know!” The doppelganger beamed. “This is why I only use alteration. As you may have noticed, no flames surrounded my body. I may look like you, but that’s it. I only look like you, it’s just an illusion.”

Bucky scryed him with his magic, and breathed a sigh of relief. The changeling was not lying. It is nothing more than an illusion. No traces of Necromancy lingered in the air. “Why do you refuse to use necromancy?”

“Do you want demons to escape from tartarus?” Stupid questioned.

“Of course not.” Bucky finished his glass orb, now filling it with a spell that will attract birds.

“Me neither. I'd much rather have Equestria demon-free.” The changeling altered his vocal cords to call birds.

Both of them had nothing to say as they worked. Bucky making and enchanting glass orbs and Stupid altering birdseed to have laxatives in it.

“Why are you here? What are you trying to accomplish?” Bucky quietly said.

The changeling lowered his head in thought. Every time he opened his mouth, he closed it with a look of doubt on his face. Finally, he spoke.

“What is your favorite element?”

“Ice?” Bucky answered.

Doll smiled. “I meant element of harmony.”

Bucky scratched his chin. “I have never given it much thought.”

“...I would have to say mine is generosity.”

Bucky waited for the shape-shifter to continue.

“I don’t think people appreciate Rarity enough. Possibly because her attitude belies her nature,” Stupid sadly said. “Yes, to give when you can is wonderful. Yet, generosity is so much more. It is not giving when it’s convenient, rather, when it difficult.”

“Rarity works hard for nice things, yet she gives those nice things away. The feeling of blessing another, even at great loss, is such a rewarding feeling. One that you can truly take pride in. It humbles, yet empowers oneself.”

“I wish to be…” Stupid hesitated. “I wish to be an example, to all changelings. That we can serve in love, and be something worth loving in return.”

“...Do you think lying to Twilight is the correct thing to do?” Bucky softly argued, “to be dishonest? Do you want that to be the example shown to all ponies?”

“Oh, I’m not lying to her,” Stupid solemnly said.

“What are you doing then?” Bucky challenged.

“I’m pranking her. Something all ponies should expect from us changelings,” Doll grinned.

Bucky stared at the changeling for second, then broke out into laughter. Quickly that laughter turned into a coughing fit. Stupid pounded his back to try and help him. Bucky relaxed, catching his breath.

“That is quite the prank,” Bucky smiled.

“I’m quite the changeling!” Stupid boasted.

Remembering he had a job to do, Stupid cast an illusion around himself, making him look like a bird. Tweeting to other birds, he encouraged them to eat the birdseed, promising them all a delicious meal.

Passing nearby was Lugus, who also saw the promise of a delicious meal. Swooping in, he crunched down on Stupid with his powerful beak.

---

“You should be dead,” Bucky calmly stated, rubbing his sore snout. His wife had finished swatting both him and Stupid, calling them bad foals. She was now fretting over the injured changeling.

“I should be dead,” the changeling calmly replied, ignoring the stink eye the fussy mama bird was giving him.

The three were inside a very large marble statue that had just been placed in the middle of Ponyville this morning. It was a statue of Bucky rutting Berry senseless in fine detail. It even had little sweat drops on both of them. It was a magical hollow marble statue, that let anyone inside it see what was going outside it.

“Maybe if you both weren’t such naughty foals, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt!” Derpy snorted.

Bucky and Stupid had a smug look. Derpy eyes narrowed.

“So, you made sure to move the orb to the opposite side of town right?” Stupid asked.

“Of course, right after I teleported you in here,” He grinned.

“What did you two do?” Derpy growled.

Suddenly, all the curious ponies surrounding the statue screamed. An absurdly huge flock of birds were flying over the town, raining poop all over Ponyville. A few of the citizens crashed into each other. One mare screamed, and then fainted when she got bird poop in her mouth.

Bucky and Stupid hoof bumped.

Derpy swatted both of them, again.

“BAD FOALS!” She screamed.