Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

Ch15: Crashpranking

POV: Rainbow Dash

It was a sunny day, perfect for flying around. The Weatherteam wrapped everything up pretty early, so I had much time to spare. What better way to spend time than have Markus watch me fly? So, I flew over to the Library, but stopped when I saw Pinkie hide in a bush nearby.

“Hey Pinkie!” I said, when I landed next to her.

Pinkie hushed me and motioned me over. I sat down beside her and tried to see what she was spying at. That was when Markus exited the Library.

He walked a few steps forward and then looked at the ground. He gave a short glance over to us, before he shook his head, smiling, and made a larger step forward.

I heard Pinkie curse under her breath beside me as Markus simply just walked away to wherever he was headed. Pinkie jumped up and wanted to go after him, but I stopped her.

“Pinkie? What’s going on here?!” I asked her, this time with a bit more force behind my voice.

“Can’t you see it? I’m trying to prank Markus, Silly!” She answered.

I looked over to where Markus made the large step and saw what looked like a pressure plate slightly protruding from the ground. I guess Pinkie had a Confetti Cannon hooked up to that, but I wasn’t really sure.

When I turned around again, Pinkie was gone already, but trying to prank Markus actually sounded like fun, so I figured I’d go search for her. Well, I actually went to search for Markus, as I figured he would be easier to find than Pinkie.

Sure enough, I saw him enter sugarcube corner and, after a bit of flying around, found Pinkie too.

“So, what exactly are you trying to prank him with?” I asked, as I set down next to her.

Pinkie was hiding behind a pile of crates, from which she could watch the entrance to the bakery. She quickly turned to me and hushed, signaling for me to hide too.

“I have asked Mrs. Cake to give Markus a special cupcake, when he comes to visit.”

I felt a slight twinge in my heart. She wanted to gift him a Cupcake? Was Pinkie, too, trying to hit on Markus? Did she really want to steal him from me? I know, in hindsight, it were pretty stupid thoughts, but I was very inexperienced back then. My training and my job at the weatherteam had mostly kept me from talking to any stallions. If I talked to a stallion, then it was mostly because I had something else to do with him, like work or sometimes even training.

“S-So, how’s a cupcake g-going to prank him?” I asked her. She looked back at me and clearly, the insecurity in my face told her everything she needed, as a big, knowing smirk instantly emerged on her face.

“Aaaaaw, don’t worry, Dashie! I’m not trying to steal your Stallion, silly! I’ve put hiccup-powder into the cupcake, so when he eats it, he gets reeeeeeeeaaaally hiccupy and won’t be able to stop hiccupping and then we can laugh over his hiccupping and…” And before I knew it, Pinkie went into one of her one-breath-tirades. Seriously, to this day I don’t know how she can say so much in just a single take. Well, at least I felt the pleasuring feeling of relief surge my body, as my worst fear in that moment was proven false.

“… and then we can finally have a ‘I-managed-to prank-Markus’-Party!” She finished, just in time for Markus to exit the Bakery, with a small paper bag in his left hand and a single cupcake in his right.

Pinkie instantly turned around and re-hid herself behind the crates. I saw her rubbing her hooves, as Markus rose the cupcake to his lips… his… lips…… AAH, ANYWAYS!

So, he rose the cupcake to his lips and took a bite out of it. He chewed and swallowed. Pinkie was now almost hopping in place, as Markus began walking again. He walked a bit… and nothing happened.

“WHAT?!” Pinkie exclaimed. “WHAT HAPPENED?!”

Pinkie was clearly frustrated. I don’t know, how many times she had tried to prank him, but clearly she didn’t have much success at that point.

Markus, meanwhile, was slowly walking away. A fact that had not gone unnoticed by Pinkie and so we two quickly followed behind. We entered the Everfree and figured that Markus most likely wanted to visit Zecora for some reason.

“Wait… He bought a bag full of cupcakes… and now he’s going to Zecora’s… are he and Zecora maybe..?”

My heart ached for the second time, but I quickly decided that it was an absurd thought. He clearly wasn’t dating Zecora… wasn’t he?

I took up some speed to get there before him. Pinkie, somehow, got there even faster than I did, but that’s pretty much just Pinkie being Pinkie anyways. We lay in wait beside Zecora’s hut in some bushes, until we saw Markus approach. Sure enough, I saw him enter the hut… with the bag of cupcakes… and a (for Markus) rather happy smile on his face.

I felt my heart ache even more and nearly started to sob, but Pinkie spoke up at just the right time.

“Now, I’ve got the perfect prank for him!”

Before I could say anything, Pinkie put me into a costume and started explaining.

“So, you are gonna sit in this Bush and wait for him to come out. As soon as he closes the door, you JUMP out and shout ‘RAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!’ And scare him really hard and then he will get scared and he will fall on his romp and then we come out and say ‘Gotcha!’ And he’s gonna be like ‘Whaa?’ and…”

A very ‘Pinkie’ explanation later, I was sitting in the bush, Pinkie had shown me. My mind was still cluttered with thoughts of Markus and Zecora being together… Luckily I was ripped out of them, by Markus leaving the hut. On Pinkie’s mark, I made myself ready and when Markus was right before me, I jumped out of the bush.

“RAAAAAAAH! RAAAAAH! RAAAaaaah… Rah?”

Judging by the blank look he gave me, he wasn’t very impressed. What luckily he also wasn’t, was ‘together with Zecora’, as I quickly spotted the bag still in his hands and the smell of cupcakes wafting from it. I felt waves of relief fill my stomach again, as another worry was proven unfounded. That didn’t change that the prank was an utter failure, though.

I gave Markus a sheepish smile and laughed a little, almost apologetically. Markus’s blank expression quickly morphed into a smile.

“Yeah, well, didn’t quite work, huh?” I asked.

He shook his head and chuckled.

“No, it really didn’t.” He stopped shaking his head and put a hand to his chin. He narrowed his gaze upon me, his smile still on his face, as if in mock-thought.

“That being said, you DO look very cute in this costume.”

A flash of heat hit my head and I felt a pleasurable wave of joy wash over me. I looked down to the ground to avoid blushing further. I wanted to say something, but all that came out was a hushed “Th-thank you…”

Suddenly, I felt something touch my mane. My head shot up and I saw Markus smiling down on me, his hand slowly forming circles on my head. That was more than I could manage at that point. I felt my head go bright red, and my legs suddenly felt slightly shaky. I didn’t know what to do and there was no one in sight that could have helped me, so in a split-second decision, I…

“Ah, um, gotta go, bye!”

…took air and made a dash for the bush I came from.

Pinkie was already waiting for me, excitedly jumping on one spot.

“So? Was he surprised? Was he scared? Was he? Was he? Was he?”

I shook my head and Pinkie instantly stopped bouncing and her mane lost a noticeable bit of its curliness. She let out a series of frustrated groans as she started rambling about how she will somehow get a successful prank done soon and something.

We went on, trying to prank Markus multiple times throughout the morning, but none of them were even nearly successful. Markus finally went back to the Library, still with his bag of cupcakes in his hand. Pinkie’s mane had lost all of its curliness by now and her coat had taken a slightly darker shade of pink.

Just as Markus wanted to open the door to the Library, she suddenly stood behind him and started yelling.

“WHY IS IT SO HARD TO PRANK YOU!!!!?!?!! HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO ALWAYS AVOID OUR TRAPS?!?!” She screamed on and on, slowly closing in on Markus. I suddenly remembered something important and tried to warn her, but it was too late.

Pinkie stepped on the pressure plate and two cannons emerged from the grass beside her. In an instant, she was covered in confetti and froze in place. Markus now had a victorious smile on his face. He leaned down to Pinkie and booped her muzzle.

“Gotcha.”

Pinkie gave him a short, confused look, before her mane poofed out again and she began to laugh.

“Ahahaha, that was a good one, Markie!” She said.

“Sure was! Now how about some Cupcakes?” He pulled a vanilla cupcake with chocolate chips from his bag and held it towards where I was hiding. “You can come out by the way, Rainbow. Come on, this Cupcake is for you!”

I jumped out of my hiding spot and trotted over to him. He held the cupcake down to me with a smile and I gladly took it.

“So.. this Cupcake was for me all this time?” I thought, waves of joy washing over me, as I savored the sweetness of it, only enhanced by the fact that Markus had given it to me.

Markus reached into his bag once again and pulled out a second Cupcake. It was brown with a pink glaze and a cherry on top. Pinkie took it and gulped it down in one go.

“Hmmmm, yummy! Thanks Mark- HIC!- Huh? Wha –HIC!- What’s hap- HIC!- ening?” Pinkie asked.

Markus let out a short laugh. “Gotcha twice!”

We ended up wholeheartedly laughing together for a good while, only interrupted by Pinkie’s Hiccups.

Author's Note:

He's back *dun dun*, the maaaan behiiind the maaaask.

Now, for those who were wondering what happened: My PC broke and I had to wait for a new one and since my E:TA-files were saved on my computer, I started writing on another story for the time being. Said story is called 'Homo Draconis' can be found here by the way.

Anyways, I will finish Homo Draconis this Weekend (hopefully), which means that E:TA will finally get worked on again. Yay! Hope you are just as thrilled as I am!

And yes, this IS a rather short chapter. That's because this was actually started before my PC broke, but by now I had forgotten what I wanted to wrtite, so I prety much just slapped something onto what I had started, in order to at least publish something, for now at least.

Comments

[Xblaster]

Good to see your back bud, and a okay chapter, just wish rainbow had a little more common sense then to think pinkie was just trying to "Steal" Markus even tho she knew pinkie was trying to prank him, that and when he visited Zecora

[Timzocker201]

10085022
The problem with "common sense" is that it directly refers to what's considered "normal" in our society, which means that "common sense" would likely be something entirely different in pony culture. also, in the land of ponies, where stallions are rare and mares don't fight fair, it is not unreasonable to assume that there's been plenty of KNOWN cases, where a mare took a stallion from another, even though she knew that the other was interested in him, resulting in a massive drama of some sorts. The only difference to our world in this case being, that in pony culture, occurances like this are considered "normal".

Just to give you some insight in my thought processes

[Xblaster]

10085926
..okay, I think I'll move to brain cells now on

[Onyx Wulfgar]

Basically to sum up this chapter...
Congratulations, you played yourself.
Lol, love the story keep it up!
Also please have Markus go on an angry German rant sometime? I always find it hilarious when someone goes on an angry rant in another language.