Channels

by Buttery Biscuit

Pranknote

Author's Note:

A small black box hovered in the corner, it read ‘NUMBER’ for only a few moments. A similar blue box popped up at the bottom. PrankNote Season 1 Episode 1. Genre, Drama, action, Thriller. Rainbow finds a notebook on the ground that can make any prank happen to any creature she desires.

Flashes of Rainbow Dash flickered across the screen.

Covered in a white cloth, Pinkie sat in what appeared to be some kind of pink shell. She offered a red frosted cupcake to Rainbow Dash, who was just about to sink her hooves into this decadent treat.
Suddenly, the screen flashed and dissipated to reveal a half-eaten cupcake lying on a black book with white text. “PrankNote.”

Rainbow lay on a pure white cloud, staring blankly into the clear blue sky. She groaned as she tossed and turned on the cloud, her eyes wandering about aimlessly. Rainbow had already bucked every single cloud out of Ponyville, and even all the clouds around the neighboring towns.

Well, all except for this one particular cloud. It appeared to be the most comfortable one around to rest on, but yet, lying on it was no different from laying on the uneven ground.

She rolled over, hoping to find that perfect sleeping position. She really wanted to take a nap; after all, she had nothing better to do. She had already practiced for the Wonderbolts’ show several times, the classes she ran at the Wonderbolt HQ were well past over, her friends were busy and her prank partner Pinkie was out of town.

However, in spite of Rainbow’s best efforts, nothing she did could bring her sleep. A chunk of dense cloud jabbed into her side as she stared into the sea of multicolored roofs. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears, the only noise in miles making the whistling wind sound louder than Pinkie and her one pony band.

THUD!

Rainbow immediately jumped up at the sound as it echoed through her skull, scrambling over the side of the lone cloud.

A black book with white text rested innocently on the ground below her.

Desperate to relieve her aching boredom, Rainbow went for it, landing onto the hard ground with a thud, dust kicking up at her hooves. She looked over the vast rolling hills of lush, green grass for anycreature, swearing that she saw some creature’s shadow from the corner of her eye.

“HEY, YOUR BOOK!” she yelled out, as she peered around the corner.

Silence.

Rainbow turned to glance at the book once more, before trotting over towards it, her eyes glinting with the reflection of the title, 'Pranknote.' She lifted the book up with one of her hooves and ran the other one over the pale, white text.

Strange. She had never seen a book like it before.

She gleefully rubbed her forehooves together as she wondered what the book was all about. She hovered her hooves over it, but they stopped short of flipping the book open.

What if it was a journal? It would be so rude to read it; it would be an invasion of some creature’s privacy!

As she continued to stare into the book's intriguing cover, the more she felt her curiosity biting into her, feeding into her temptation to open the book. Every part of her begged for Rainbow to open it. After all, she could return it to whoever dropped it, and if it wasn’t a journal or anything she could definitely read it. If it was dangerous, or boring, well, she could just pass it to Twilight.

But of course, she couldn’t do any of that if she didn’t know what this book was about, or who it belonged to. She had to read it. Rainbow’s hooves traced the smooth cover. Just one look, she promised herself, and then she will do the responsible thing and return it.

She flipped the cover aside swiftly, allowing her eyes to scan through the very first page. It had charcoal black pages, with a few lines of white text. “Huh?” she frowned as she flipped through the seemingly endless sea of black pages. Her eyes danced over the white letters adorning the page before her.

Instructions I:

• The creature whose name is written within this book shall be pranked.
• It will not work unless the writer is thinking of the creature who will be pranked, so no being with the same name is affected by the book.
• Once written, the victim will be pranked in the next 40 seconds.
• After 40 seconds have passed and the details of the prank are ambiguous, they will simply trip on a banana.

Rainbow laughed out loud. No book could ever do such a thing and even if it could, it would most likely be locked away under the supervision of Twilight or somepony like that. Skipping over the many black pages of instructions, she pictured that tall purple alicorn in her head. “Twilight Sparkle,” she wrote on the very first blue line. She chuckled as she closed the book.

Whistling, she strolled down the cobbled road. The streets were packed with the many colorful creatures that now called Ponyville home. Buildings that were now several floors higher were spreading out past beyond what used to be the limits of the town.

Rainbow waved to a baby griffon that rushed by her, along with several foals. She chuckled to herself, as she remembered a more carefree time when she was in their hooves, playfully pushing through the crowd of adults in the town. Now she was one of those adults, but only way cooler and definitely much less annoying.

That tingling wave of nostalgia evaporated as she came to a stop at the Castle of Friendship. Pushing the crystal doors open, she entered the spacious atrium. She passed the rows of tall bookshelves that filled the place Twilight would probably still call home.

Rainbow strode up to the guards, two griffons, stationed in front of the basement stairwell. She presented a key shaped just like her cutie mark and passed it to one of the guards. She waited as the guard pushed it into the lock.

As soon as the lock clicked, the two guards moved out of the way, revealing a cavernous passageway. Rainbow crept in, descending into the chilly, winding stone staircase.

A giant purple portal hummed quietly at the bottom. Rainbow took a breath and stepped through it, the fur on her back tingling. She stumbled out the other side, a myriad of colors swirling around her as she collapsed down onto the ground immediately. No matter how many years went by, even the notion of teleportation still bothered her.

Slowly, she shuffled her way over to a large wooden table. Clinging the book underneath her wing, she crashed onto the soft, cushioned chairs.

“Ahhhhhhhhh...”

These chairs were so much better than the ones that came with the map. Those chairs were literally made of crystal and while its surfaces were nice and cool, they were hard to sit on.

She frowned, as she reached into Twilight's complimentary bowl of fruit. She missed doing that, as it kept her days busy. Unfortunately, her friends disagreed with her lackadaisical attitude as they all desired to move on to bigger and better things. It was a good thing, though; Rainbow now taught several Wonderbolt classes, camps, the weather team, and she ran the Headquarters. Spitfire had retired a year ago to become a full-time drill instructor. That didn’t mean that Rainbow wasn’t bored; she was still pretty fast and had managed to end up with a lot of time on her hooves.

Rummaging through the bowl, Rainbow found her hoof constantly rubbing against a bunch of thick-skinned bananas. In disbelief, she stared right into the bright red bowl to be greeted with a pile of yellow.

Her heart stopped.

How could the book do this? Twilight's bowl was usually more varied than just a huge stack of bananas. There was no way this could have happened; it was just a book!

She frowned, cold sweat dripping down her forehead as she gazed into the bowl.

“Rainbow!” Twilight yelled for the third time, finally jolting Rainbow out of her trance “Are you alright?”

“Huh?!” Rainbow glanced over to Twilight holding a banana peel.

Her eyes widened. She felt as though someone was tying an invisible rope around her chest tighter and tighter.

Everything went in slow motion as Twilight put the banana down onto the old oak table. A small pink, ethereal blur knocked it off immediately, conveniently placing it on the ground for Twilight to slip over it.

That was exactly what happened. Twilight turned, dropping her left forehoof directly onto it, and, just like that, she was sliding across the room.

“Oof!”

“Are you ok?” Rainbow exclaimed as she flew to her friend on the ground. She softly brought her hoof to Twilight's flowing dark mane.

“Don’t worry Rainbow, I'm fine. It'll take more than a banana to take me down.” Twilight laughed before taking another look into her friend’s concerned gaze. “Accidents happen Rainbow.”

Even though Rainbow had managed to force a smile, she could not stop the frantic pounding of her heart. “I gotta go!”

“But you just got here!”

“I forgot something!” Rainbow yelled as she leaped through the portal again. She leaned against the chilly cobblestone wall of the stairwell. She shook as she removed the book from her wings. It had worked, the book had worked! She quickly flipped to the black pages and read a few more pages.

Instructions II

• This book is the property of this realm once touched by an inhabitant.
• The present owner can hear, see and speak to the original owner, who is the god of pranks.
• Anyone who touches the book can see the god of pranks.
• Only one side effect is known to come from using the book, seeing pink blobs.

Instructions III

• If the time of prank is written in 40 seconds after writing, the result is falling on a banana.
• The time of the prank can be manipulated to whenever the prankster desires. Time goes into effect 40 seconds after writing the name.
• If you desire to change what is written it must be within the next six minutes and 40 seconds. Cross out what you wrote with two straight lines.

Rainbow slammed the book shut and placed it on the ground. She leaned her head against the cool cobblestone wall, her head swimming in questions and anxiety. She tried to drag her mind away by focusing her thoughts elsewhere.

After a time, she took a furtive glance at the book. This was so much to take in at once. The book had not only worked but it seemed to make sure the prankee never got too hurt. So, if no creature got too hurt, was it wrong for her to use it?

Rainbow wouldn’t be using the book that often, just every once and while as a treat. Or perhaps when she got beyond bored and finished all her work. The book was hers now, even if the owner did show up. Just a few pranks here and there couldn’t hurt, right? Especially if she was extra careful about safety.

With that, Rainbow flew out of the stairwell and back home. She dragged her hooves through her home and slumped in front of her gaming station. Normally she would be all over it right now, but she just wanted to have more fun with this new toy.

Grabbing a dust-covered pen off of the nearby table, she brought it over to her page containing Twilight's name. Only ten names, she promised, and that's all she would write before she would stop and take a break.

“You seem to be having fun,” a recognizable deep voice uttered over Rainbow’s head.

“AH! DISCORD?!! What the heck?!?! You really scared me! Wait, what are you doing in my house?” Rainbow yelled at the chaos lord floating behind her.

“That’s my book Rainbow, but I guess it's yours now ‘till you croak.”

“Your book?”

“Yes, my book. So many names, more than I have ever seen written in one go,” Discord said as he tossed a cupcake into his mouth. Reading over the several pages of pranks Rainbow had written out, he continued. “And I have ‘dropped’ this book a few times.”

Rainbow looked down at the filled pages, at least three of them. She was having so much fun that she didn’t know she had written so much. She glanced at the door again, or how much time had passed by. “It’s just a one-time thing! I can control myself. It's a special occasion.”

“Right.”

“Plus a little fun every now and again is more than fine. Watch out world, I'll become the most responsible prankster ever!” Rainbow stated in triumph, fully confident in her self-control. "Just you watch I'll take a potato chip an eat it, I'll take my leftovers and reheat it, I'll take my rug out back and beat it."

Discord simply laughed as Rainbow jotted more names down into the book.