Five of the Bearers of Harmony plus the two princesses sat in stony silence around the table that had been conjured up in the library's main room. Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack were all looking quite confused while Rainbow Dash, Celestia and Luna were all unusually serious. Pinkie Pie was smiling in a way that suggested she wasn't all there. Everypony started when the door to the basement flew open and Twilight strode out. Her horn glowed and a large digital screen formed in front of the table.
"Now that everypony's here we can begin," Twilight said. "This is the current situation. Earlier today Chris accidentally ate a large amount of super sugar, magically enhanced sugar." A short list appeared on the screen. "These are some of the known side effects of consuming excessive super sugar. So far Chris has exhibited pretty much all of them. Yes Luna?"
"Thank you Twilight," said Luna, lowering her hoof. "A though just occurred to me. Is super sugar not a restricted substance? How did Chris manage to obtain some?"
"It was an accident," said Pinkie. "Chris bought some baking supplies from Sugarcube Corner while I was baking with the super sugar. Mr Cake accidentally gave it to him instead of normal sugar. And you're right about it being restricted. I had to go through all sorts of background checks and test to prove that I could bake responsibly."
Everypony took a moment to wonder what counted as irresponsible baking before moving on. "Now I've run the math," said Twilight, "and I'm almost certain that Chris has eaten enough super sugar to make the resulting sugar rush permanent. To make matters worse he also drank my talent enhancer potion, which is making his magic far more powerful.
"However there is an upside to this. If Chris overextends his magic for a long enough period it'll cause the potion to short out, like what happened to Rainbow Dash. If my calculations are correct that short out could be enough to trigger a sugar crash."
"Could?" Applejack asked.
"I'm not a hundred percent certain," Twilight admitted. "But at this point it's the best plan we've got."
"I have a question darling," said Rarity. "Precisely how do you plan on getting Chris to overextend himself?"
Twilight shifted nervously. "Actually I haven't really come up with anything for that yet. That's one of the things we're all here to discuss. Anypony have any ideas."
Nopony answered for a little. Then Luna said, "What if you, my sister and I were to engage him in combat? Facing three alicorns would certainly provide the necessary stress."
"That sounds mighty risky," said Applejack. "Chris could already go toe-to-hoof with Twilight before. Ya'll think you can handle him with that super magic?"
"Um, they wouldn't really need to beat him," Fluttershy pointed out. "They'd only need to keep it up long enough for the potion to short out."
"We'll be fine Applejack," said Celestia. "Luna and I have faced many dangers like this in the past, I have faith in Twilight's abilities." Twilight blushed at that. "However I suppose it would be prudent to have some backup. We'll have a squad of guards to reinforce us when we confront him, just in case."
"OK, but how are we going to find him?" Rainbow asked.
"I've been trying an aura scrying spell, but so far it hasn't been working," said Twilight. "Chris's aura is scattered all up and down Equestria. I can't pin him down."
"Luna and I will aid you," said Celestia. "Let's perform the spell immediately. I'd like to know where Chris is currently."
"Alright then," Twilight said. "Here goes." All three alicorn's closed their eyes and lit their horns. Narrow streams of light spread out, spinning around each other, weaving into a giant, 3D map of Equestria above the table.
"Ooooo…"
"Shush Pinkie."
"Oops, sorry."
"Well there's his aura," said Twilight as splotches of light lit up all over the map, some glowing brighter than others.
"My, he has gone everywhere, hasn't he?" said Celestia. "Everywhere from Appleloosa to Manehattan."
"I think we may be able to narrow it down a little," said Luna, frowning in concentration. Slowly the splotches shrank down, most disappearing all together.
"Almost got him," said Twilight. "I think he's close."
"Yes," said Celestia. "It feels like he's…"
The three alicorns' eyes snapped opened and they said at the same time, "right outside!"
There was a mad scramble for the door and everypony burst into the street, then slipped, tumbled and fell, due to the fact that the road had been covered in a layer of ice.
"Whee!" cried Chris as he skated towards them. "Hey girls! Wanna go ice skating? It's really cool!" He giggled as he slid to stop in front of them. "Hehe, I'm so funny."
Twilight's horn glowed and a wave of heat blasted the area, melting away the ice. Everypony quickly got to their hooves, backing away from the three princesses, who stood with their horns lowered at Chris. Chris seemed supremely unconcerned and raised an amused eyebrow.
"Are you going to try and fight me?" he asked. The alicorn's said nothing, the auras surrounding their horns answer enough. Chris sighed and reached behind his back. "Then I guess I have no choice but to use… these."
For a few seconds there was silence as everypony stared at the objects in Chris's hands.
"Those are maracas," Twilight said eventually. Chris nodded, grinning like a lunatic.
"Yup." With that Chris started shaking them. Then out of nowhere a chorus of trumpets joined in, blaring a lively, up-beat tune while Chris danced with the maracas.
"They call me Cuban Pete," Chris sang.
"I'm the king of the rhumba beat.
When I play the maracas I go chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky boom.
Yes sir, I'm Cuban Pete.
I'm the craze of my native street.
When I start to dance, everything goes chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky boom."
Many of the ponies of Ponyville had come out into the street and were jiving along to the music. Celestia could feel the compulsion to dance along nagging at her, but she stood firm as Chris kept singing and shaking the maracas.
"The senoritas they sing and how they swing with this rumbero,
It's very nice, so full of spice.
And when they're dancing they bring a happy ring the maraquero,
Singin' a song, all the day long."
The compulsion kept getting stronger and Celestia could feel herself twitching to the beat.
"So if you like the beat, take a lesson from Cuban Pete
And I'll teach you to chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky-boom."
And then Luna started singing too.
"He's really a modest guy, although he's the hottest guy.
In Havana, in Havana."
In a flash Chris was standing next to her and they started dancing a tango as Chris picked up the song.
"Si, senorita I know that you would like to chicky-boom-chick.
"It's very nice, so full of spice.
"I'll place my hand on your hip, and if you will just give me your hand.
Then we shall try - just you and I. Aye-aye-aye!
"So if you like the beat, take a lesson from Cuban Pete.
And I'll teach you chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky-boom!"
The music changed as everypony lined up and started congaing down the street, led by Chris with Luna right behind. And still those infernal maracas kept shaking. Celestia gritted her teeth, putting everything she had into resisting. Her horn glowed, her magic gathered and there was a flash of brightest sunlight. The music stopped with the sound of a needle scratching on a record. The ponies in the conga line blinked and shook their heads, coming out of their magic induced trance. Chris stared in surprise at the smouldering sticks that were all that was left of his maracas. He threw them to the ground, put his hands on his hips and scowled at Celestia.
"That was rude," he said. Then his hands flicked out, a pulse of blue energy racing towards Celestia. With a loud crack it splashed against a purple shield. Twilight grunted from the force of the blow as the ponies of Ponyville scattered. The shield shrank into a small purple ball and hurtled at Chris, who met it with his own shield. In a flash he was gone, reappearing behind them. His head snapped up and a dome of energy bloomed around him as Luna attacked from the sky, her beam of moonlight wrapping around the shield, prying for weaknesses. Twilight and Celestia joined the assault, blasts of intense sunlight and pure magic pounding against the shield. For a moment they seemed to have the upper hoof. Then the shield shone bright and blasted outward, tossing the princesses away. Twilight groaned and rubbed her head, then gasped when she saw Chris. Magic played across his skin and his eyes glowed pure white. Electricity crackled around him in thin arcs. He lifted his hand into the air.
"Diamond dust," he shouted. Magic glowed and swirled, collecting around his hand in a flurry of ice and snow. More and more magic gathered around his hand, a miniature blizzard that raged and spun faster and faster. A shield sprang forth, mottled purple, blue and gold as the princesses fused their magic. Chris levelled his arm at them, the blizzard condensing to a tiny point of light. Then there was a small pfft and the light exploded into a couple of snowflakes. Everypony stared. Chris giggled.
"My magic went kaput," he said with a silly grin. And without the slightest change in expression, he toppled forward and went soundly into the land of nod. For a long moment everypony stood stunned.
"Well that was anticlimactic," Pinkie said.
"Have I mentioned how incredibly sorry I am?"
"Many times."
"I feel the need to say it again."
Chris was lying in a bed in Ponyville Hospital. While there was nothing seriously wrong with him the doctors had recommended he stay in bed for a few days until he had recovered from the super sugar crash. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were sitting around the bed. Luna and Celestia were off calming the population and attending to anyone or anything that had gotten caught up in Chris's pranks.
"I told you Chris," said Twilight. "You weren't in your right mind. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia have already fixed up a lot of the mess you made." Chris winced and Twilight reviewed her last sentence. "That may have come out wrong," she decided.
"What Twilight is saying is that nopony blames you dear," said Rarity.
Chris sighed. "Well thanks for that. I don't actually remember a lot of what happened too clearly. It's all sort of fuzzy."
Twilight shrugged. "It's probably another side effect of the super sugar."
"Probably," Chris said before yawning massively.
"Come on girls," said Applejack. "We should probably let Chris get some rest."
"I'm not that… tired," Chris protested as they filed out.
He was asleep by the time Twilight switched the lights off.
Dear Princess Celestia.
Today I learned that it's probably not a good idea to leave potentially dangerous baking goods lying around unsupervised. From now on I'll be sure to properly lock them away when I'm not using them. I know this isn't really a lesson about friendship, but I wanted to write to you anyway, cause it's been so long since I wrote to you. I hope you're remembering to have plenty of parties when you're not busy being Princess and everything.
Your faithful subject,
Pinkie Pie.
P.S. I hope I put enough confetti in this letter.
Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow at the huge amount of confetti now raining from the ceiling. Perhaps a tad too much, she thought.
If you get the references you get a cookie.
So that's pretty much the end for this arc. The next chapter will be Chris dealing with the so of the fallout, so to speak. That may not be for a while though. I'm going to be going on a break for a little. Only a week or two, to make sure that I don't burn myself out. I also probably won't be sticking to a schedule anymore either. Doing chapters weekly turned writing into more of a chore than a hobby, which Is something I didn't like. I do want to keep writing this and I want to enjoy writing it as well. So I'll see you all in a couple of weeks. Ciao!
Also for those who were wondering Luna and Celestia did manage to get the moon back to normal. After having an outing with plenty of wine and crackers.