Gets grounded for turning a filly’s hair into a rainbow and causing her to go Banana-nuts during an important meeting
“I hope you three are proud of yourselves!” Princess Luna snapped, levitating three small ponies in her telekinetic grip. Well, “ponies” might have been a stretch for all three. Illusion, the half-draconeques son of Celestia and Discord, resembled a pony from the neck up, but had his father’s mismatch of parts down below. Nidra, daughter of Luna and Supernova, a Night Guard, and the last of the troublesome trio, Valiant Heart, alicorn son of Cadence and Shining Armor.
“What were you thinking?! Pulling a prank on poor Starburst like that! Illusion and my daughter I can understand, but you, Valiant? Doing such a cruel joke on your cousin!”
The three young royals in question had their heads and ears low, trembling slightly from Princess Luna’s chastisements.
“It was just supposed to be a little prank! We didn't know she’d snap like that!” Illusion protested, but was cut off as his ear was wrapped in a golden aura and pulled.
“AH! AH! Uncle! I give! I’m sorry, mom!” Princess Celestia huffed, giving her son a small glare and releasing his ear from her magic. She and Princess Twilight stood in front of a large door, which they recognized as the entrance to Princess Twilight’s room.
“I am very disappointed in all of you. Thankfully, the Minotaur Ambassador was more amused than insulted, and found the whole thing ‘adorable.’ Still, what you've done was wrong, and we have decided to punish you according.” Having said that, Celestia opened the door to Twilight’s room, and stepped back, allowing Luna to levitate the three pranksters inside.
“For your punishment, you will be grounded, and stay in Twilight’s room until we think you've earned your release,” Luna snapped, cutting off her magic and letting them fall onto the bed. “Food and drink will be provided.” Illusion huffed, and discreetly tried snapping his claws behind his back. His face paled when nothing happened.
“And don’t even think of teleporting out, Illusion. I've set several magic barriers up to insure you can’t leave. So that none of you can leave,” Celestia said, giving her son the stink eye, causing the half-draconeques to blush in embarrassment.
“Honestly! I know its boring being cooped up in the castle for so long, but did you have to use Starburst as the target for your pranks?” Twilight asked, annoyed.
“All we did was give her a rainbow mane like Auntie Celestia’s!” Nidra complained, getting off the bed.
“And you know how terrified Starburst is of her mane! She cried every time she tried to hold her as a foal! And the first time she flew was when she was running from Celestia!” Twilight admonished, unaware of the pained look on her former mentor’s face.
Yes, Starburst was scared of Princess Celestia’s ethereal mane. Hilarious the first few times, and still funny after all these years. Much to the Sun Princess’ chagrin, and the amusement of her family.
Illusion, Nidra, and Valiant Hearts had been bored all day, and while Starburst had been taking a nap, Illusion had the brilliant idea of pranking the littlest royal. Valiant had not been too keen on the idea, but Nidra had given him the puppy-dog eyes, and he’d caved. He couldn't refuse his bestie, after all.
And so, when Starburst had woken up after a pleasant nap, found her mane had been transformed into Celestia’s glorious multi-hued bonanza. Naturally, she’d freaked out. For ten whole minutes she ran around the castle, screaming her cute little head off, trying to run away from her own mane. During that, while the pranksters watched from afar, Starburst had burst into a meeting room where the ambassador from the Minotaur kingdom was having a discussion with all four of the Princesses.
So there she was. Flowing rainbow mane on her, flowing rainbow mane in front of her. So Starburst did the only thing a filly could do. Pass out.
Unfortunately for the cohort of tricksters, their laughter had alerted them to the Princesses, and to say they were mad would be to call a glacier an ice cube.
“Fear of rainbow’s aside,” Luna said, coughing to get their attention, “your actions could have caused a diplomatic incident with the Minotaurs, and that’s not to say of how mean-spirited the prank was. So, enjoy your time-out.”
“But, but, what are we supposed to do in here?” Valiant asked, looking around the surprisingly sparsely decorated room. Besides the bed and a desk the only things inside were several bookshelves full of literature.
“You could read,” Twilight suggested with a smile, which quickly turned into a frown as all three let out a huge groan.
“Fine then! Don’t partake in the bounty of knowledge!” The Princess of Friendship (and Magic, but that part of her title was a bit blurry and still wrapped up in miles of bureaucratic red tape) huffed, stalking out of the room with her nose in the air.
“Don’t break anything,” Luna warned, before closing the door. The trio winced as they heard a lock clicking, and realized their doom was at hand.
“…Wanna play Tic-tac-toe?” Valiant offered after a moment of awkward silence.
“Oh, come on, Illusion!”
“What? It’s a legitimate tactic!”
“You can’t use your magic to erase your move! Or use Mobius Strips instead of O’s! Or let said Mobius Strips start doing ‘The Worm’ all over the playing field!”
“You are so boring, Nidra!”
“Why you little!” The junior Princess of the Night lunged across the floor at her patch-work cousin, trying to throttle him somehow with her hooves.
Valiant sighed heavily. He’d tried to make his cousin’s behave, he really did! But Nidra and Illusion were “Free Spirits” and that meant being forced to stay in one place all day drove them bonkers.
“Can’t you two stop acting like foals?” Valiant snapped, his patience worn thin.
“But, but, Valiant!” Nidra whined, getting off of Illusion’s prone form.
“Look, we’re supposed to be getting punished for our prank on Starburst. We’re not here to have fun, so the least we can do is try to get along,” Valiant pointed out, earning himself a huff from the pouting prince and princess.
Silence fell, and the trio just sat around, staring blankly at nothing for while, before they couldn't take the silence.
“… I guess we did go overboard with the prank,” Illusion admits, breaking the silence in the room.
“Yeah, doing that to Starburst while she was in the palace was probably not the best idea we've ever had,” Nidra agreed, Valiant nodding with them. Their musings were interrupted by a growl echoing from each of their stomachs. Nidra giggled as Illusion and Valiant blushed, embarrassed.
“Dinner’s served,” a muffled voice from outside the door stated, and the grounded royals grinned. Finally! Something to do that wasn't boring!
The door was pushed open by a tall, purple and gold armored stallion, the armor for Princess Twilight’s Star Guard soon obscured by a large trolley laden with several covered dishes.
“Oh, you've also got a visitor,” the guard mentioned, stepping aside to admit their guest after delivering their meals.
The three ponies looked up in surprise as Starburst crept in past the guard, her mane back to her natural purple with orange stripe.
“Oh, uh, hey, Starburst,” Valiant said, nervously.
“I’m sorry I got you all grounded!” She said, nuzzling her cousin.
“…Huh?” That wasn't what they’d expected at all.
“You three must have wanted to help me overcome my fear of Auntie Celestia’s mane, right? I’m sorry I panicked like that.”
“Yes! That is exactly what we’d planned!” Illusion said, jumping in on the life-line the young filly had unknowingly offered them, giving her a hug.
“Indubitably!” Nidra chimed in, giving the little orange Pegasus filly a hug as well, squishing all four of them together in one big group hug.
“Wanna eat with me?” Starburst asked, innocently looking up at her family, then towards the food trolley.
“Absolutely,” Valiant said with a warm smile.
“I hope those three have learned their lesson,” Twilight said as she walked towards her room, the other princesses accompanying her. They day was over, and Twilight thanked her lucky stars the Minotaur Ambassador had been so understanding.
“Because you don’t want to keep punishing them?” Cadence asked, looking at her sister-in-law.
“No, because I’d like to sleep in my bed, and I can’t do that if they’re still grounded in my room.” Twilight wasn't sure why her fellow princesses were suddenly stifling their chuckles, but ignored them as she came up to her room, and nodded at the guard on duty.
“Anything to report?”
“Nothing, your majesty. Although, I should warn you; what you see inside is not for the weak of heart.” The four alicorns raised an eyebrow at that, and Twilight carefully pushed the door open with her magic, before taking a peek inside.
“D’aaaw,” Twilight coo’d, smiling goofily at the sight before her.
On top of her bed, three familiar shapes were curled up in a triangular position around a fourth equally familiar form. Little Starburst was in the middle of her three cousins, each of them with a wing, leg, or tail draped protectively over her as she slept, her chest going up and down with each cute breath. As for the trio of grounded ponies, each of them were fast asleep as well, curled peacefully around their youngest member with smiles of their own on their faces.
“That is adorable,” Luna commented, peeking her head around the door to take a look.
“Indeed,” Celestia agreed.
“Does anyone have a camera?” Cadence asked softly.
The four princesses looked at each other, before they all dashed off to grab one.
The guard just shook his head in amusement, and carefully closed the door.