Costume Calamity

by I had no idea

Prologue: The challenge

The sender of this letter officially challenges
TWILIGHT SPARKLE, protegé of Princess Celestia of
Equestria, to a contest of costumes, held in aforementioned
settlement. All postage fees are covered by the recipient
of this letter.

Signed:

Trixie Lulamoon

magician extraordinaire

_________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight Sparkle grumbled as she paid the patient postal pony with three shiny golden bits; fee for large-distance postage. He accepted them with a smile, and nodded to her as he trotted on his way to his other deliveries.

A letter, now? If what Big Macintosh said the other day was true, Trixie visited Sweet Apple Acres just a week ago! What could her purpose be?

A blue wing snatched the letter from her telekinetic grasp, it's owner giving it a thorough examination.

"So, Trixie's coming back to town?" Rainbow Dash asked her friend, returning the letter. "A costume contest sounds harmless enough... not to mention MY costume will be the most awesome anyway."

Twilight hummed, puttting the declaration to a duel away, deep in thought.

"Still, what is the reason for the sudden challenge?"

Looking up she realised the pegasus was staring at her expectantly. She sighed.

"What is the most awesome costume ever?"

Rainbow grinned.

"Okay, you have to picture this with me. I will go as Daring Do, adventurer and explorer of mysterious... um, places, who has acquired cool ninja and pirate powers, and became a zombie, too. Oh, and wearing a Wonderbolt uniform, too."

"That's... nice, I guess." She couldn't imagine a zombie Daring Do being cool (at least from a sane perspective), with all the craving of brains and whatnot. Still, the pegasus at least had an idea. Who or what should she dress up as?

Purple, purple... What is purple? A suffocated octopus. While it would definitely make an impression, the idea itself is dumb. Still, she doesn't really feel like painting her coat, so she has to figure out what is purple and awesome enough to beat Trixie. 'Purple, awesome, possibly magical? Twilight Sparkle! Haha, just kidding...' Should she go as Spike? Hmm, no, he already did that, there's no fun in repeating that. What if she did paint herself, though? What if she went as her mentor, Princess Celestia? Nah, too cheesy. She needs something awe-inspiring, something undeniably majestic, something symbolic, something... purple.

"Y'know, I can't be arriving late today for my practice, so..."

"Wait! 'can't be arriving'... That's it! BEAR! I'll go as an Ursa Major! It's perfect!"

"Um, Twilight, I hate to break it to you, but you're kinda... vertically challenged to be a towering monstrosity handing out serious punishment, if you catch my drift."

The lavender unicorn waved a hoof dismissively.

"Don't be ridiculous, Rainbow, this is a friendly—I hope—little competition; what matters is the thought and creativity, not being lifelike size... Nopony in their right minds would go as far as making themselves bigger for a simple costume!"

"Dooooon't jinx it, Twilight!" chimed in Pinkie, startling both mares.

"Pinkie, I don't understand what you're saying." Twilight frowned.

"But Twilight, you've read a lot of books and those books all had letters in them, not letters sent by the post office mind you, but letters nevertheless --I wonder if I should write to Mom and Dad tomorrow? – which all spell out, at least in interesting stories, not the boring ones, duh, who reads them anyway? So as I was saying, every time somepony dismisses something as completely ridiculous, it usually comes true! Twilight!"

Confused from the barrage of words, the lavender unicorn could only nod. Pinkie smiled at her happily, then gasped.

"Twiiiiiiiiiiiliiiight! I was being brilliant just a moment ago! I think I have some fake teeth you can borrow for your Ursa costume!"

"Great! Let's go, I am pretty free at the moment. I already sent my letter to the Princesses, so nothing is going to stop me!"

_________________________________________________________________________________

About the same time in Canterlot Castle, Princess Luna was having tea with her sister. The occassion was nothing special, just a chance to finally spend some time together. The door suddenly swung open, and a black unicorn stallion trotted in without the slightest worry in the world. His cutie mark was too obscure to figure out. The two alicorns turned towards the newcomer.

"So, first, I'm bringing good news: the gardeners finally figured out how to distinguish weed from the valuable Magical Reciting Hydrangea; once they realized it sings the alphabet backwards, it was a piece of cake. As for other news... well, it can be good, too."

He levitated two letters to Luna, unfolding them carefully.

"The first is from Ponyville, actually. Some townsfolk decided they'd send you a letter hoping you would attend to this year's Nightmare Night celebrations down there."

"That's wonderful, Luna!" Celestia said, smiling at her sister. "They actively seek you out now! Maybe you are being accepted by the common ponies, at last?"

"It indeed seems like it." the moon princess replied. "I am happy that they actually seek my presence during this year."

"The other letter... Well, I don't know who 'Trixie Lulamoon' is, but apparently, she wants you two to be judges in a costume competition, which, incidentally would be held in Ponyville... and on Nightmare Night, to boot."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "This is quite unexpected."

Luna looked at her with puppy-dog eyes. "Tia, pleeeeease come with me! This could be the chance of the century!"

The elder alicorn nuzzled her younger sister.

"Of course I will go, Luna. I'm sure we'll have great fun." She turned to the stallion. "Midnight, I am afraid that-- "

"Oh, don't worry about anything, I already have plans. See, I helped the Orchestra organize a charity concert, and I'm pretty sure Octavia will be playing. I can't wait to hear her! See you later, I've got an appointment with the floor renovators!"

He stormed out of the room, singing to himself. The royal sisters looked at each other, and finally broke out in a refined giggle.

"That boy has limitless energy, I tell you."

"Yes... but I can't stop thinking about this letter! This is my big debut! Somepony seeks my wisdom! My skills to decide!"

"It's just a costume contest, Luna, relax."

"RELAX?! HOW CAN WE RELAX WHEN WE ARE THIS HAPPY?!"

Celestia hid her smile in her teacup.

"At any rate," she thought, "I'm looking forward to this competition."

Comments

[Mother3Forever]

Ugh...so tired....I'l read this later.

Also, just so nobody claims first...
First

[lines n stuff]

woah. celestia and luna only get two bits of mail a day? must be rather boring to be a princess!

followin'

[I had no idea]

2040311
*cough*Notevenfriendshipreports.*cough*
Seriously though, letters that don't need to be read by them (36th demolition of Ponyville request fom Blueblood) are handled by others.

[SuperChaosKG]

2041031

They deserve it I tell you! That unicorn, I couldn't get any mares for a week. ROYAL PUNISHMENT!!

...

So why does no one respond to my letters? ... Chaos! Tell me why!

Oh... reasons.