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To my faithful student, and trusted princess-in-training,

Why did you not tell me sooner that you were experiencing such difficulties? Had I known sooner, I would have given you this right away. We hope this helps alleviate some level of stress, Twilight.

– Celestia

Twilight stared at the little box in mild dismay, a miniscule frown settling on her pursed lips.

"I don't get it," Spike scratched the back of his scaly head, furrowing his brows at the small green cube. "How is that supposed to help?"

"I'm not really sure, Spike," Twilight frowned more deeply, trotting slowly around to the other side of the table and inspecting the box more closely. "Princess Celestia wouldn't have sent it if she didn't think it would be helpful…"

"Okay," the purple drake crossed his arms. "So, it's a prank."

"It's not a prank, Spike," Twilight rolled her eyes, tipping the box with her hoof and ruffling her new wings uncomfortably. "I'm almost positive of it."

"Almost positive," Spike grinned, peering at the bland underside of the lime green box. It was surprisingly heavy, despite its size. "You never know…"

"Kindly stop attempting to insinuate that Princess Celestia is an immature deviant," Twilight grumbled, and magically attempted to pry open the box to no avail. "It's obviously some kind of test that she sent in order to distract me from –"

"From what you're supposed to be doing?" Spike asked dryly, a sly grin creeping onto his face as he stole a glance at the enormous pile of paperwork that Twilight was expected to file through. She groaned internally, the thoughts of finishing and returning to her position of public relations crushing her.

Twilight sank into the wooden chair, rubbing her temples wearily.

"Yes, Spike," Twilight sighed tiredly. "In all likelihood."

"I dunno how giving you more tests is supposed to 'alleviate stress'," Spike said. "I still say she's screwin' with you."

"If you're quite finished," Twilight grumpily attempted to turn the box inside out within her magical grasp, which resulted in the box wobbling slightly. "I need to focus so that I can get back to work."

"If you say so," he shrugged, slipping out of his chair. "I'm gonna go see Rarity."

Twilight hummed distractedly as he left and the sound of silence following the latching door, and she began focusing all her attention on the little box. She embraced the silence, her thoughts turning as she inspected the box from top to bottom. It was possible that the box held a hidden lever or button somewhere, or perhaps some kind of switch that was very difficult to throw. And since conventional magic didn't seem to be opening the box at all, it was possible that Celestia expected her to use alicorn magic in order to open it.

Carefully dredging up the heavy roiling alicorn magic and letting the blackened aura tingle over the tip of her horn for a moment, Twilight released a miniscule amount of magic into the side of the box.

Absolutely nothing happened.

Twilight breathed through her nostrils and let out a grunt of frustration, even more agitated now than she was before the box had been delivered to her. Twilight was in the process of attempting to return to her workload when she heard it.

At first, she thought that it was only her imagination, but upon pausing and listening she found the odd scratching noise to be coming from the box.

Excitedly, Twilight snagged it from the table in her hooves, ensured that she had attained success.

The box promptly exploded.

Twilight shrieked (who wouldn't?) as thick, numerous slick appendages burst from the box in every direction, plastering the walls and ceiling.

It would appear that Twilight really had been pranked.

She stared in shock at the mess that the miniature explosion had caused, and she vainly attempted to flatten her mane. Twilight was wordless, but only for a bare moment; she was releasing a steady stream of foul words under her breath as she strained to find the box, wondering just how she was supposed to get the vines that coated everything back inside.

Upon closer inspection as her hoof brushed against one of them, Twilight discovered that they were not vines at all. The hefty green lengths were tentacles.

And they were moving.

Understandably, this disturbed Twilight greatly.

She screamed when the tentacle wrapped itself around her leg without warning, jerking her high up into the air. She instinctively flapped her newfound wings uselessly as a number of other green tentacles slithered into the air and swarmed her. Quickly, Twilight blasted the things with as powerful a magical strike as she could muster.

Nothing happened.

Understandably, this disturbed Twilight greatly.

"Help!" Twilight yelped, scrabbling to force the tentacle around her hind leg into releasing her. She flailed and kicked viciously, but to no avail – within moments, her other hind leg was hefted easily even higher, and another tentacle sneakily wound around one of her forelegs and began tugging her sideways. "Spike, stop this crazy thing!"

But of course, Spike had already left.

"Dammit, Spike!" Twilight bellowed, regardless of whether or not it was actually his fault. Really, she wasn't particularly angry at the drake – it was more blind panic that made the situation worse, and Twilight realized this swiftly. Analyzing the situation as she struggled to keep her only free hoof from being snared by the tentacle lazily snatching at it, Twilight spotted the open box tossed forcefully against a wall. Perhaps there was some clue as to how she could rapidly return the many limbs back to the box inside.

It would have been easier to get to had the tentacles not been dangling her several feet in the air; and she probably would have realized this sooner, had one of the tentacles not slyly begun slipping just inside her thighs.

"Whoa!" Twilight wriggled, kicking uselessly at the limbs as she was flipped onto her back. "Oh, no you dowhoaheyheyhey-!"

Her heart was pounding in her ears when she suddenly discovered her mouth stuffed with the rounded end of a hot tentacle. She quickly found her shouts muffled as her legs were tugged apart, and one of the slimy appendages glided easily inside her.

Twilight's wings flared hard at this latest development, extending to their full reach as her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. The tentacle inside her mouth popped out, releasing her breathy yelp as it wound downward over her stomach and began quaveringly pressing against her button.

"S-stop!" she yelled futilely, as it was really the only thing she could think of in that particular situation.

To her vast surprise, her plea wasn't quite as futile as she expected it to be in her despair – to be frank, she wasn't expecting the tentacles to even obey for a moment. But obey they did, and Twilight stared at the tentacle pumping lewdly into her as it stopped mid-thrust.

Twilight took a few seconds to catch her breath, finally blinking as the gears in her head turned.

"Can-can you actually hear me?" Twilight asked quietly, her confusion growing as the panic began to slowly dwindle. The limbs did not answer, so Twilight tried something else.

She pulled her wings in a little more comfortably, taking another long, deep breath and flattening her mane in the tentacle's loosened grasp.

"… Go a little more slowly," she began uncertainly, and again, the appendages obeyed. Twilight hissed sharply as the tentacle between her legs vanished a little further inside her, and she arched her back so much that it was nearly painful.

Almost as if they could sense her discomfort, the tentacles rearranged themselves and shifted beneath her to form a kind of looping, hammock-like seat. It allowed Twilight's legs to be reclined into the air more restfully as her tunnel was excavated slowly by the probing green miner.

Even though she hated to admit it, it was... a surprisingly pleasant experience.

Twilight lost herself before long in the rhythmic thrusts, gently propelling themselves in and out with a strange pattern – in a little, in a little more, deeper inside until she wanted to tell it to stop again, slow withdraw, repeat. She kept her mind on the pattern, the tension swelling as she panted, using her hooves to keep herself steady on the throne of tentacles.

She moaned loudly as she came, the dripping appendage slithering over her belly like a jade serpent and placing itself tentatively before her. With a flush, Twilight gradually stuck out her tongue and licked the bobbing tentacle, the taste of her own hot juices making her blush even more deeply.

"Let-let me suck it," Twilight breathed heavily, excited as another tentacle tenderly tickled her clit. The tentacle submitted to her commands, curling around and presenting itself with the tip prodding against her own tongue. She sighed with ecstasy as a little shudder ran up from the base of her spine, and she slurped the smooth rod while another limb lovingly kissed her teats and wrapping around her midsection in an affectionate kneading.

Twilight ground herself backwards and lifted her legs a little higher, reclining deeply into the tentacles as she allowed herself a little smile. Her mind was beginning to go blissfully blanker with each hot, wet thrust, and she had to pull the tentacle from her mouth in order to continue her dirty-sounding pants and moans.

"Hiyya, Twilight!"

Without warning, the tentacles retracted with an impossibly loud snap! as Twilight was dropped unceremoniously to the floor. She flopped in surprise and struggled to get to a standing position, even though her legs were wobbling violently.

Her eyes rolled in her head, whirring around to the cheerful looking Pinkie Pie standing with her head poked in the doorway to the library.

"Lookin' kind of flushed there, Twi!" Pinkie said in a chipper tone, her pink mane springily getting in the way of her eyes. "Try soup and bed rest, it's good for you."

"What are you doing?" Twilight sputtered, looking wildly around the destroyed library in embarrasment for any sign of the tentacles. They seemed to have all retreated instantaneously into the little box…

"Oh, right!" Pinkie Pie allowed herself entry to the library, clapping a hoof to her head. She snorted, and said "Fluttershy is setting up a picnic for everypony in a little while for Angel's birthday party! Can you believe she didn't even tell me?"

"Uh huh," Twilight said distractedly, eyes wide as she shakily tried to magically clean up the mess. Her cheeks burned furiously, and she her heart pounded loudly as she shook – although she was silently grateful that Pinkie apparently hadn't seen anything. Not that she was self-conscious about somepony seeing her engaging in such acts with a bundle of tentacles; no, that would have been bad enough. Twilight was much more worried about Pinkie seeing her enjoying it so much.

"You sure you're okay, Twi?" Pinkie Pie clapped a friendly hoof on her shoulder, nearly knocking the poor startled mare to the ground. "Seriously, you look like you just saw a ghost. Have you spent all day un-cleaning your library? I have days like that, too! Usually only on opposite day, but sometimes on Tuesdays. Did you know that not every opposite day is on the same day a year? I wonder if Tuesdays are still Tuesdays on opposite d-"

"That's great, Pinkie," Twilight interrupted her, desperately heaving up the weighty green box and feverishly jamming books back onto the shelves. "Really, it is, but I'm-I'm actually kind of – kind of busy right now…"

"Oh, that's okay!" Pinkie Pie nodded happily. She stared at the purple princess-in-training as she appeared to be struggling to keep her odd green box still, which stopped wobbling and wiggling after a moment. Twilight gave her a weak, red-cheeked chuckle and grin before sliding the box onto the table and covering it with half a dozen books, guiding the slightly suspicious pink party pony to the door.

"So, what time is, um… that pot luck?" Twilight asked distractedly as she pried open the door.

"Picnic," Pinkie deadpanned. "Fluttershy's cottage. Three hours from now. Why?"

Twilight was very nearly about to send her away, before it clicked.

"… That depends," she replied breathlessly, another heated and excited grin etching up her face as she peered about to ensure that nopony was looking in her general direction. "Do you want to help me with, er… some experiments?"

"What kind?" Pinkie asked a little more enthusiastically as Twilight snapped the door shut and locked it.

"Oh, you know," Twilight fiddled absentmindedly with her mysterious green box, her grin widening. "I really think that you can help me determine how long you'll last."

Understandably, this disturbed Pinkie greatly.

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