//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: A Prank too Far // Story: Luna and Tiberius: The Nightly Crusade // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Luna and Tiberius: The Nightly Crusade Chapter Four: A Prank too Far Written by TheCrimsonDM A sleeping pink pony lay in her oversized bed while cuddling with an assortment of stuffed animals. A small alligator lay at the foot of her bed sleeping with a stuffed panda bear held tightly in its toothless mouth. The room was dark save for the moonlight that shone through the balcony doors and illuminated the silhouettes of two ponies. A second later the silent silhouette were gone. One of the stuffed teddy bears suddenly stood up of its own accord and looked at the sleeping pony. With an outstretched limb it tapped the pony’s cheek a few times in an attempt to get the pink ones attention. Slowly the pink pony opened her eyes and saw the once lifeless bear standing before her. Instantly Pinkie Pie sat up out of her bed and all her sleepiness had vanished in an instant as she exclaimed, “MR.CUDDLES! You’re alive, I can’t believe it. How did this happen?” The bear took a courteous bow and stood back to its full height standing at an imposing twelve inches. Pinkie Pie quickly clapped her hooves at the sight. The bear reached over and touched a stuffed piglet and a sudden aura of pink light covered the stuffed doll. After a moment the pig began to stand and move as well. The teddy bear simply shrugged and said in the most innocent child like voice, “I’m magic now.” Pinkie grinned and said, “I don’t really need an explanation. Whatever made you come to life is like totally nice by my books.” The bear began dancing around the bed while touching various stuffed animals. Each time a pink light would cover them and then they would start to move and dance as well. After only a few moments every single one of the stuffed animals were moving and dancing with new found life. Twelve different stuffed animals all stood around Pinkie Pie silently, and she couldn’t stop smiling at the sight of them all. The animals all stood silently save for Mr. Cuddles who rubbed his belly and giggled like a foal. With a voice that could only have belonged to a small colt the bear began speaking again, “You see, Pinkie. We came to life because we all love you so much! That’s why we’re going to kill you. Because we love you isn’t that wonderful?” Pinkie Pie’s smile faded a little and she gave a tiny laugh before saying, “That’s a silly joke.” “Oh but I’m not joking,” The bear replied happily. Pinkie’s smile disappeared and she said, “Okay so I lied. It’s not funny, actually it’s a little scary. So can you stop playing around?” The bear’s head turned slowly and continued to twist all the way around its shoulders until it rotated a full 360 degrees and then it stopped and giggled again. “Come on everyone, let’s get, Pinkie!” Suddenly all the stuffed animals jumped at once landing on top of the pink pony and she screamed. Pinkie Pie rolled off the bed grabbing at the stuffed animals and throwing them as she yanked them off of her. After getting them all off she scooted away into a corner and watched fearfully. The toys began getting up off the floor almost instantly and walking awkwardly toward the pink pony with a single purpose. Pinkie Pie reached over and grabbed a pillow that was lying in the corner of her room with her teeth and began swatting the stuffed animals away. Her eyes were now wide and she looked frightened beyond belief at the toys coming at her now. The bear suddenly leapt into the air, jumping nearly six feet into the air before landing on top of Pinkie’s muzzle and staring into her bright blue eyes with his own button eyes. Slowly he raised a paw to his stitched mouth and whispered, “Shh… guess what.” Pinkie Pie dropped the pillow and asked, “W-w-what?” “You’ve,” the bear said while leaning in closer, “Been,” now the bear put a single paw onto her forehead and finished, “Pranked.” Suddenly all the stuffed animals fell over and returned to their normal lifeless forms leaving Pinkie Pie to sit in the corner of her room looking very confused. With her eyes still full of fear, her body trembling slightly, and her nose twitching Pinkie just sat there in silence. Finally Rainbow Dash and Luna stepped out of the shadows of her closet laughing. Pinkie Pie slowly took the teddy bear off of her muzzle and set it down gently. Pinkie also picked the pillow up with her mouth and threw it as hard as she could at the two ponies who just exited her closet. The pillow flew true and hit Rainbow Dash square in the muzzle and suddenly all the laughter stopped. Pinkie Pie sat in her corner still trembling and giving a dirty look to the pair. Tiberius who was sitting on top of Luna’s back just shook his head slowly back and forth. Rainbow Dash looked taken aback and Luna suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Pinkie just sat in silence while glaring at them. “Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said. “No,” Pinkie Pie said sternly. “I don’t care who you think you are, or what you think you are doing. This was not funny!” A deepening sense of guilt hit Luna and she found it very difficult to continue staring at the pink pony. Luna instead chose to look away and apologize, “We are sorry, pink one. We thought-“ “I don’t care what you thought,” Pinkie Pie interrupted. “This is my home, this is my room, and these are my stuffed animals. Nopony touches them, and nopony uses them to scare me! I need these things to go to sleep at night, and now I’m scared of them… I might never get to sleep again now.” Luna closed her eyes shut tightly and Rainbow Dash took a few steps back away from the hurt Pinkie. Suddenly she realized that Tibbles had been right and that this was a terrible idea. Pranking ponies while they slept in their homes was an invasion of private space that might have horribly damaged her relationship with these ponies. Slowly Luna opened up her tear filled eyes and said, “I’m sorry.” Pinkie Pie crossed her hooves and frowned. The room was filled with silence for a few moments the only sound that could be heard was Pinkie making tiny coughing noises. Luna stared at her praying that Pinkie wasn’t coughing because of her actions, but something was off about Pinkie. Pinkie’s frown was breaking into a smile and her coughing was turning into some horrible sound that Luna couldn’t quite place. Suddenly Pinkie exploded into unbridled laughter that only grew worse as she continued laughing. Pinkie Pie rolled over onto her back and clutched her stomach as she continued laughing, snorting, and even coughing a few times from how hard she was laughing. Luna and Rainbow Dash looked at each other worriedly and pretended to laugh along. Finally Pinkie had calmed down just enough to explain, “I can’t believe that you actually thought that I’d be upset about this. I was just pretending to be upset. You fillies got me good so I had to get you back somehow.” Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof into the floor and said, “You mean that you were just lying to us about being hurt? That’s not funny that’s… actually a pretty good prank.” Luna was dumbfounded and could only say, “I cannot believe that we fell for that.” It didn’t take long for all three of them to start laughing together. Rainbow Dash and Luna stayed for awhile after that and talked with Pinkie Pie at great length. They told her about how they had pranked everypony and how much fun they had that night. Finally though Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie fell asleep again, and Luna took that as her notice to leave. Before leaving though Luna made sure to put all of Pinkie’s stuffed animals back onto the bed and making sure they all looked neat. *** Luna flew her way home after leaving Pinkie’s house. She had her fun and loved spending her night off with Tiberius. Going around and playing pranks on all of her friends with Rainbow Dash at her side proved to be entertaining indeed but the sun would be rising soon and that meant that she would be needing to sleep soon. By the time she returned home the sun was just barely peaking over the horizon and Celestia had woken up. Celestia was eating breakfast, and Luna’s dinner was already sitting on the table waiting for her. Luna gratefully sat down at the table and began digging in without any restraint, the trip to and from Ponyville had taken a lot out of her after all. Celestia just smiled and only after Luna had already finished half of her meal did Celestia speak. “So I’ve heard that you had an interesting night.” Luna looked up and saw a sly look to Celestia’s eyes. Luna gulped and said, “Um… we have only been enjoying the night to the best of our abilities.” “And playing practical jokes on Twilight and her friends was part of that?” Luna looked away and said, “Well…” Celestia’s grin grew larger. “It sounds like you had a lot of fun last night. Although the next time you wish to play any jokes on them, could you invite me? I’d love to see the reaction on Twilight’s face if I were to be the one behind such an event.” Luna’s jaw nearly hit the table at Celestia’s words but after the initial shock wore off all she could do was smile. “Of course dearest sister, we would love it if you joined us in a night of joy and fun.” THE END