Luna woke up to the rising sun, yawning and stretching away the stress of a night of policing dreams. She got up as she always had, trotting to the bathroom door and opening it with her magic to waltz in and get ready for another day.
Except, this time the door didn't open. Instead of swinging inwards to the bathroom, it refused to budge, and Luna walked straight into the elegant door, facefirst. "Ouch! What is the meaning of this? Is this door broken?" She asked aloud. So she pushed on the door, throwing all her weight into it while ensuring the knob was turned, but it wouldn't move, even a tiny bit. So, needing to go to the bathroom, Luna resorted to plan b: magic blasts. If it wasn't for the soundproofing on her room, the guards might have thought the castle was under attack, but at the very least Luna was able to relieve herself. Then, irritated but still in a decent mood, she walked through the doors of her room and into the hallway.
Or more specifically, she tried to, for those doors failed to budge either.
"What in Tartarus is going on today? Is every blasted door in this castle stick this morning?!" She pulled the doors with all her might, but nothing. Deciding to not scare anypony in the hallways, she dropped the soundproof spell and called out. "Guards, our door seems to be stuck on this side. Couldst thou try and open it from your side?"
"At once, Princess!" The two guards attempted to push the door inwards, but they too found it impossible to force the door open. In a final fit of desperation, Luna teleported through the door to save face, and ordered the guardsponies to find out what was wrong. Suddenly, there was a magical explosion from the dining hall, and Luna rushed to investigate.
What she found was a very irate Celestia, the main door to the dining hall in splinters, and maids scrambling to sweep up the mess. "Good morning, dear sister," Luna remarked. "Seems that our room was not the only one with this issue."
"Luna! I didn't see you there. For some reason, none of the doors in the castle are opening! I've sent out a call to our best repair ponies to help solve the issue. But for now, I'm afraid that dismantling the doors seems to be the only option. Try to break as few as possible, but we do need to open a few doors to allow our little ponies who cannot teleport through them. After breakfast, at least. Come on, let's eat, and then we can work on helping everypony out.
"I'm sorry your majesties, but I'm afraid I don't understand what you are asking me to do. All of the doors seem to work fine, aside from the ones you have already smashed.
"Nonsense! None of them work!" Remarked Luna. "Oiled Hinge, we demand that thou show us these supposed working doors!"
Oiled hinge had seen a lot to door problems in his day, but how the princesses were acting about the doors in the castle was new to him. And he had been working for thirty years! "Luna is right, something is wrong with the doors. Observe," Celestia remarked, having led the group to the doors to the ballroom. She leaned up against the door, pushing with more than enough force to force a door like that open. "Now, how is it you claim they all work?"
Oiled Hinge looked at the royals, confused. "You... that is to say... uh..."
"Well? Out with it!"
"Maybe I should just show you." And with that, he pulled the door open.
"...when we find who is responsible for this, there will be some words."
In an undisclosed location, two figures watched the show through a crystal ball. Both were obscured by shadows, but both were clearly biped. One was apelike, the other a mix of parts from dozens of animals. They fist bumped calmly in celebration.
"I can't believe that worked."
"Nick, mah boi, a good laugh is what all pranksters strive for."
"Did you just reference-"
"Still, I didn't expect them to break half the doors in the castle! Who would have thought that switching the way the doors swing would create so much chaos?"
"I figured it might. Thanks for helping with that, by the way. Hey, show me Blueblood stuck in his room again!"
Suddenly, the lights clicked on, revealing their secret meeting place to be the broom closet of Twilight's castle. "How about a swim in the moat instead?" Asked an irate Purple princess.
Nick ran off, but Discord pulled a dessert from nowhere and prepared to throw.
"Twilight Sparkle, you dare bring light to my lair! NOW, YOU MUST PIE!"
Sweet, sweet chaos and Discord!
Beautiful.
Oh God, CD-i Zelda references.
About time he showed up.
Yeah, when you're running on automatic, without coffee yet, you might not grok that now you have to pull instead of push. I recommend a coffee pot in your bedroom to prevent that.
Insidious genius to think of something like that. Teaming up with Discord amounts to overkill. How did our Purple Hero stumble upon the mysterious lair of the pranksters, though. That is a puzzle.
He now needs to team up with Celestia and Luna to prank Discord and Purple Magic.
9259559
Locator spell
9259559
Nick needed to work with Discord because there was no other way to invert the hinges on every door in the castle in the span of a single night, without the night guard noticing, and without making enough noise to wake anypony.
As for how sparky found em, I'll leave that up to you.
I am now on the fence of if I should open betting tables in here or not. Any of you think I should???
9259714
For what, and can I get in on it?
Oh wait it's probably for who's next and then I could just write the correct guess and win nvm
Loved this chapter, the prank was so clever yet so simple.
9259720
Yes & I don't allow authors to bet because of what you jest said. It's a very unfair way to win.
9259729
Fudge. Well, I put 1:1 odds on the halloween/nightmare night chapter going up next, and its gonna be a bit different so put it off until after that, at least, if you do go through with it. 'S not like I can stop you
9259735
Ok then. I'll try.
Discord has arrived, hahaha.
9259628
That's a good answer, but I would have thought Discord would have had a antidote for that. Unless he wanted to Pie her. Yeah, I'll go with that.
Oh I was well aware of that, the title gave it away... can we have discord in more chapters, so much untapped potential
9260168
That's the point. Discord has shown that he can pretty much do... anything he wants, so any prank I can think of is possible. But at the same time, he becomes a deus ex machina. If Celly, Luna and Nick called on him all the time for o er-the-top pranks, that would make the chapters where he doesn't show up bland by comparison, and the story mas as well become "Discord pranks ponies" instead.
Like a fine wine, Discord is best enjoyed on occasion, not constantly, lest you spoil your tastes for good.
That said, we WILL be seeing him again, Alright? Do you want anything else?
9260236
Basically, for them, Discord is a last resort. It isn't really satisfying for any of the characters to just go to Discord, and Discord wouldn't help if he was constantly asked to pull pranks. If there's a feasible way for one of the characters to make a prank work without the deus ex machina that is Discord, they'd take it, because then it really is an achievement of theirs. Why this chapter works so well is that the prank is right up a reformed Discord's alley, subtle and harmless, but causes a good amount of chaos, which he revels in.
9260236
Yes, when will rainbow and pinkie (ponyville's top pranksters) show up in this?
For some reason that made me laugh harder than it should have.
...
...
I blame Game Grumps.
9260830
Not the only grumps reference in this story!
Go back and check the author notes for each chapter, I forget which one it is.
9260876
Either i don't see it, or i don't know the Game Grumps well enough to see it.
Either way, a great applause to you for writing a hilarious story and i'm looking forward to more funtastic installments.
9260401
Today.
Oh for Faust's sake just switch the doors!
I never remember which way doors open, so this doesn't work on me.
I also sometimes forget where I live... wait, where the hell am I right now? (A camel wanders by over a sand dune) Did I end up in Egypt AGAIN?
Don’t know if anyone has got the reference, but I believe it’s to Wand of Gammalon, the infamous Philips CDI Zelda game.
9259525
"Great!"
Brilliant.
Stuck
9269117
The best part of the Internet is that you can reinvent yourself as a complete lunatic, and nobody will have a problem with that. (Note: it has been some time since I used that option; I spent some time as the Tails Doll on the forum where my current username technically originated (it's the source, but I didn't actually start using it until long after leaving))
Pie or Die, there is no try... Bye-Bye!
Very lovely how simpel he tricked them. I try open doors by both sides if one isn't working.
Guess they can not simply take the doors out by the hindges?