//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Mind Trip // Story: The Banana Incident // by TasteTheSun //------------------------------// After being told by Celestia to go to bed, Luna threw off her regalia and groveled into the covers of her bed. By then she was out like a light, sleeping for the entire day and night. When morning came around, Luna slowly woke up while stretching her body out. She rubbed her chest in hopes of easing the pain. Raising her head up, she immediately fell back down on her pillow, realizing that her dizziness had worsened over night, but she didn't care. She simply giggled as she found pleasure from it. Using as much will power as she could, she got up once more and did her best to stay balanced, but when her hooves touched the marble floor, she couldn't help but twirl around several times before crashing down on the floor. She tried to keep her laughing under control as to not agitate her ill chest. Looking at her surroundings, she spotted something at her doorstep. A banana. Scooting towards it like an inchworm, she grabbed the fruit, peeled it and took a bite out of it. As she ate her breakfast, she sung a little tune to herself. "I love you and you love me, bananas are always a tasty treat!" When she finished the banana, she started thinking of something she could do. She picked up the banana peel and placed it on her head. She looked into the mirror and marveled at her banana crown on her head. Suddenly, she began to hallucinate, and found herself at the end of the throne room. There were a bunch of ponies cheering for the their beloved princess, all being held back by several banana guards. All this took Luna back, that the only thing she could do was smile as she stumbled towards her throne while trying to stay balanced. Stepping up to the throne, she turned to address to her loyal subjects. "Friends... it is a great honor... that you bestow upon me... the privilege of being... your princess of bananas!" she announced in a loopy way. The crowd went wild and began chanting "Banana Princess!" All was great until Luna lost her balance and fell to the floor. When she lifted her head, she was back in her bedroom. She continued to feel praised as to being crowned the princess of bananas. Then she started getting a different feeling, a feeling deep within the pit of her stomach. "Oh... tummy feels funny," she moaned as she slowly got up. Her face was turning green. She anxiously looked around before thankfully spotting the toilet in her bathroom. She raced towards it where upon arriving, vomited all of the contents in her stomach out into the toilet. Her dizziness had now taken its toll. She stayed there with her head in the toilet for the next thirty to forty-five minutes before passing out. A while later, Celestia came in to check up on her sister, only to find her in the bathroom. Shocked, she raced to her sister's aid and lifted her head up from the toilet bowl and saw it filled with vomit. She quickly flushed it before she herself would vomit as well. Using her magic, she levitated her sister back to her bed and tucked her in. She checked to make sure she wasn't running a temperature, or anything else out of the ordinary. With her forehead, feeling normal, she got up from her bed and made her way towards the door, not before stopping to leave another banana for her on her doorstep. ••• It was late in the afternoon, and Luna woke up with her throat raspy and an intense burning in her esophagus. "Uh... need... water," she moaned as she got out of bed. She searched all around the room in an attempt to find some water, though she could not find any. Then a thought came to mind. She recalled seeing water before, in the bathroom to be exact. Slowly making her way to the bathroom, she approached the toilet, opened the lid, and dunked her head in it, taking in big gulps from it, nearly draining the toilette bowl dry. A minute later, she raised her head, feeling fully satisfied. Turning to leave the bathroom, she found herself in the middle of the palace ballroom. Ponies everywhere were dressed elegantly as they danced with one another. Luna smiled with excitement as she twirled and danced to the music being played. Everyone cheered as they saw their princess doing a spectacular performance. She enjoyed every minute of it until she saw him. There standing a few feet away from her was a handsome yellow unicorn stallion. He smiled and winked as he laid his eyes on the princess. Luna felt her heart melt, and it wasn't the heartburn that was doing it. She slowly drew closer to him until she stood several inches apart from him. Stumbling to think about what to say, she decided to simply wrap her legs around him. "Care to dance?" The stallion didn't respond, in fact, his facial expression did not change. Luna took the silence as a yes. She slow danced with him with his legs dragging around the floor and his body not moving, although Luna seemed oblivious to all this. "You're a really good dancer," she whispered into his ear. With a final twirl, she released her grip around the stallion and fell to the floor. Upon raising her head, she saw that she was staring at a ponnequin back in her room. After registering what had happened, she merely giggled before passing out again. ••• Hours passed, and the moon was already high up in the sky. Luna stood up on her bed, wondering how she got there again. Her stomach rumbled. She needed something to eat. Checking to see if there were any bananas at her doorstep, she was lucky enough to have found a few. She threw herself at them and instantly devoured them, satisfying the hunger in her stomach. Lying there on the floor, watching the room spin, a cold chill ran up her spine. The room darkened, and the temperature in the room dropped. Upon getting up, Luna twitched and began panicking. Her heart was beating at a faster pace. She began to hyperventilate while clinching her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something that made her blood run cold. A giant spider crawled down the wall a few feet away from her. So scared she was, she could barely utter a yelp. She slowly dragged her way to the door. She tried turning the doorknob, but it was locked. She then tapped on the door, screaming for help. "Help! There's a spider in here and it's going to eat me!!!" On the other side of the door stood two guards listening to the screams coming from within. "Should we at least check?" one of them asked. "You heard what the Princess said. No matter what we hear, we cannot open this door," The other one responded. The first nodded as he tried to drown out the screams. Back in the room, Luna continued banging on the door with one hoof screaming as loud as her chest permitted. Turning back around, she nearly died of fright seeing the giant spider dissolve into millions of tiny little spiders, all now crawling all over her. Luna screamed harder while rolling around on the floor trying to get the figment spiders off. "Aaaww! They're all over me! They're all over me! Get them off, GET THEM OFF!!!!" As she rolled around on the floor, one of her hoofs got caught in one of the bed sheets, causing them to fall off on top of her. She shook around in the bed sheet, while in her mind, she envisioned herself drowning in the middle of the ocean. "Help... I'm drown-... I'm drowning!" she uttered before sinking down to the bottom of the ocean, farther and farther from the surface. In real life however, she merely passed out once more underneath her bed sheets on the floor. ••• Morning came, and Luna gasped, struggling for air as she shot up out of bed while trying to stand still on all fours. She looked around and was glad to be back in her room, away from harm. She then noticed the banana sitting on her nightstand this time. She quickly grabbed it and hugged the fruit while lying in a cradle position. "Oh banana... a princess... should not deal with... things like that," she whispered to it before slowly peeling it and taking small bites from it. Then a knock came from the door; a few seconds later it opened, revealing Princess Celestia on the other side. "Thank goodness you're awake this time. I was getting really tired from having to pick you up off of the floor," she said to her while entering the room. Luna did not respond. She was still traumatized from last night. Celestia noticed this and went to see what was bothering her. "Is everything alright?" she asked while rubbing her hoof on her side. She snapped out of it when she felt her sister stroking her. "Celestia?" she said slow and scared. "Yes? Are you alright?" "It was awful. At first... I was being praised...and everyone loved me... but... I was attacked... and I drowned!" Celestia was puzzled but what her sister was explaining to her. What did she mean by drowning? But she remembered perfectly well that whatever she was telling her were probably hallucinations, so she decided to play along with it. "Really! Was it that bad?" she asked. "Oh yes... it was," she replied while taking another bite of her favorite food. "But don't worry... I'm okay now," she said, finishing up her banana. She then took the peel and settled it on her head. "Look, I'm the Princess of Bananas," she giggled. Celestia giggled as well. It was a good thing her sister was in a good mood, considering the fact that she had some important news to tell her. "Banana?" "Up up up, it's Princess Banana now," Luna corrected her. "Sorry, Princess Banana, I have just been informed that Princess Twilight and her team have now finished the healing potion and are ready for you to test it!" Celestia informed her. Luna cocked her head to one side with a confused look. "Once you take this potion, hopefully you'll go back to your old normal self. Isn't that great?" "But... I'm not... sick." "Listen dear, you can't live the rest of your life like this. Doesn't it bother you being lightheaded and having chest problems all the time?" Celestia asked. "What do you mean... I'm fine! Sure I'm dizzy... all the time... and it's... hard... for me... to breath," Luna said short of breath. "But... I don't mind it... and plus... I like being... dizzy. It's really fun... you should... try it," Luna giggled. Suddenly, that giggle turned into a nasty cough. Celestia immediately patted her sister's back in order to ease her cough. After about half a minute of coughing her lungs out, Celestia laid her sister down on her bed. "Well that was... new." Luna said jokingly. Celestia sat there with an annoyed glare on her face. "See what I mean? You can't stay like this and let things worsen. You need to take the potion." "But I don't wanna!" Luna complained. "I'm sorry Luna, but my decision is final. I'll come back later this afternoon," Celestia forcefully said as she trotted out the room and slammed the door. Luna sat up. She was on the verge of tears, but she was more angry than upset. She got out of bed and paced around the room angrily while trying to keep her balance. "How dare she... she has... no right... to tell a princess... what to do... and... and..." With a single twitch, she immediately forgot about what she was angry about. "Where am I?" she asked herself, but was able to remember that she was in her room. Looking around to find something to do, her eyes settled on the balcony doors. Stumbling towards it, she pushed them open while taking in a breath of the fresh morning air. She marveled at the beauty of the sunny blue skies. Looking out into the distance, she could see the Canterlot Gardens, as well as the city streets itself. "Ooo pretty," she said in awe. Birds chirped nearby as they flew by the balcony, with one that stopped in front of Luna. It stared at her for a few seconds before flying away. Luna giggled as she continued gazing. "It's so... pretty! I wish... I could... go out there," she said, staring down at the nearby sculpture gardens. She imagined herself being there frolicking through it without a care in the world. Sudden sparks flashed from her horn, and just like that she teleported from the balcony to the gardens, where she stood there traumatized, as if she had been electrocuted. Her body shook and her eye twitched while taking shallow breaths. She slowly moved her bloodshot eyes around to absorb her surroundings. Taking a big gulp, she slowly moved one hoof forward, then resting it on the freshly trimmed grass. It tickled under hoof. Immediately her nerves settled and she threw herself onto the grass and rolled around in it for a minute. Afterwards, she went and frolicked through the rest of the gardens; sniffing flowers, watching the butterflies flutter, and even stopping to talk to some the statues. One of them is a statue of Celestia. "Isn't it... wonderful here... sister?" she asked the stone replica of her sister, only to get nothing but silence in response. "Your right... let's see... what else there is... to see," she said thinking about where to go next. As she was about to leave her statue sister, a bird fluttered a few feet above her. It was the same bird that greeted her earlier. Luna was fascinated by it. She stared at it as it flapped its wings up and down rapidly. Some how, the longer she stared at it, the lighter she was feeling. She felt as if she were floating on air. Looking down, she saw that she was floating on air. Her hooves were several feet off the ground. Turning back, she saw a pair of wings flapping up and down like the bird in front of her. She was amazed and wondered how she was doing that. When she wanted to stop, her wings folded back to her sides and fell to the ground on all four hooves. "Huh... I didn't know... I was part bird," she said impressed with her abilities. After a few minutes of figuring out how to work her wing muscles, she was able to redo what she was doing before. Flapping her wings rapidly up and down, she rose up into the air. Excitement ran through her at the idea of her flying. The bird in front of her turned and flew after the other birds it was flying with. In response, Luna flew after the flock. ••• "I'm sorry you had to go through that Princess," Twilight said as she and Princess Celestia trotted through the halls of the palace. "I appreciate your modesty, but that still doesn't help how I feel about all this. As I mentioned before, I feel as though I am raising a little filly again," she replied. "At least your troubles will soon come to an end. What's in that bowl anyway?" she asked, motioning towards the bowl Celestia was levitating next to her. "It's banana pudding. I'm aware that my sister will not take the potion by itself so willingly, which is why I mixed it in here, that way she'll take without even realizing it." "Good idea, but mind if I ask, isn't it wrong to trick Princess Luna like that?" "It may seem wrong, but at this point, it may be our only option." "Well I already have the remedy book and the ingredients from Zecora, so once she's finished with her pudding, will give her a bath in this stuff for good measure." The two princesses reached the doors to Luna's bedchamber. The guards bowed at the sight of the two. Celestia motioned to her friend to be quiet as she opened the door. "Luna, I have a surprise for you! I hope you're not still mad at-" she cut herself off when she saw that there was no pony in the room. "Me…" she squeaked as she starred in horror at the empty room, allowing the bowl filled with pudding to crash down on the floor. "Um... Princess?" Twilight said, trying to get the princess' attention. She did not respond. "Look, I know this bad, but you're probably jumping to conclusions. Maybe she's hiding somewhere, or... or," Twilight drifted off when she saw the balcony doors wide open. Both of them bolted to the balcony, only to find that there was no pony there. Celestia began to hyperventilate. Twilight quickly called for the guards. Both stumbled in as soon as they were called. "One of you send a group of guards to search for Princess Luna while the other brings the princess a paper bag, stat!" Twilight ordered. Both guards saluted before sprinting out the door. ••• During the past half hour, Luna had been soaring through the great blue skies, surprised at the fact at how good her flying was, as if she had been doing it her entire life. After flying for so long, she began feeling queasy. Looking down her heart sank at the realization of how high she was. Her wings locked up, thus, causing her to plummet to the ground and landing with a satisfying poof. Lying with her face planted on the ground in the middle of a small crater, Luna slowly got up rubbing her face. It was strange how she survived a fall like that. Looking around, she noticed a small town in the distance. There, she noticed what appeared to be a pink mare with a cake on her back bouncing down the street. Intrigued, Luna went to see the pony with the cake. ••• Back in Canterlot, Celestia slowly breathed in a brown paper bag to calm her nerves. Twilight was pacing around the room, waiting to hear what had happened to Princess Luna. She had been pacing around in a circle for so long, she had worn a groove into the floor. When the guard entered the room, both mares snapped their attention to him. "We've finally received word on the whereabouts of the princess," the guard said. Twilight teleported out of the groove she made. "Great, where is she?" "Our teams have spotted her outside of Ponyville." The two of them stared at each other in confusion. "Ponyville? How in the world did she get there so fast?" "Not sure, but she has also been spotted with a pink mare with a goofy mane, and a really weird giddy personality." It took both princesses a minute to put two and two together until they both gasped at the awful realization. Celeste gasped so much; she inhaled the entire paper bag and started choking on it. Twilight had to help her cough it out. After Celestia finally coughed the bag out, she asked the guard to repeat what he said. When he did, both her and Twilight starred at each other in horror and exclaimed an "OH NO!!!" in unison. ••• Questions, Comments, Complements, Any errors are accepted, always rpm for improvement! Be sure to like and follow me both here and Twitter(@Pony3T)!