Chapter Four

The ponies stood around a refreshment table, exclaiming over the race while the racers recovered from the exertion.

Pinkie Pie hopped around excitedly. "Woo-hoo, that was so super cool! You guys were all swoosh, and then you were all like swish." She said, acting out her words, though it did not help anypony understand her. She looked at Rainbow and smiled. "Not to mention that you look so good with your hair extra untidy Rainbow Dash." She added sincerely.

"You don't have to tell me." Rainbow said acting smug as usual, and just as typically failing at hiding how pleased Pinkie's compliments made her.

"Gross. Keep that stuff to yourselves guys." Applejack said, sticking out her tongue.

"I think it's sweet." Rarity argued.

Rainbow seemed to find this distasteful. "Ugh, we are not sweet." She insisted.

"Yes you are." Twilight teased sly. "You two are just so cute." She mocked in a cooing voice, making everypony but Rainbow laugh.

"Ugh." She blanched and flew off.

Twilight turned to Princess Luna, who was chuckling demurely behind her hoof. "Is this the sort of banter friends partake in often? Does Rainbow Dash not feel offended at being laughed at?" The princess asked.

"No, Luna she doesn't mind out. In fact, Rainbow can dish it out better than anypony can. Friends are always messing with each other; the very existence of the friendship lets them know it's all in good fun. The great thing about friends is that they know what can really hurt and stay away from saying things that might do so."

"Fascinating." The princess sounded intrigued.

Twilight noticed with humor the similarities between her and the princess. Only a matter of months ago she would often act with heavy intrigue whenever she learned a lesson about friendship-lessons that in retrospect seemed quite simple and obvious. She chuckled at the Princess's keen interest.

"You see Fluttershy over there?" Twilight asked tilting her head to where Fluttershy was listening politely to Rarity newest dramatic monologue. The Princess nodded. "Well, she is very shy and sensitive. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow like to pull pranks, but they never prank Fluttershy because they know she would take it personally. Other ponies who enjoy pranks and who aren't Fluttershy's friends would think it was enough that they didn't mean it personally. So, they wouldn't feel bad about pranking her, and might blame her if she gets upset."

Luna was nodding her head slowly, thinking heavily. "True friends put their friends before themselves. They think about the situation from the others' point of view and understand their friends well enough to know what they should or should not say." The Princess clarified, her speech sounded almost like a question. Much like Twilight, her conclusion sounded more scientific than meaningful, but Twilight knew the feeling would come with time.

For now, she shook her head exaggeratedly. "Yes! Yes, that's exactly right Luna!"

Despite the praise, Luna looked unhappy. "Maybe back then, before, or rather while I was becoming Nightmare Moon, I should have thought about the situation from my subjects' point of view. Of course they weren't going to play and live during my nighttime—they needed sleep, and it was dark amongst so many other reasons." She said, sounding self-deprecating; it hurt Twilight to hear it.

"Luna, another thing about friendship is that friends understand and have empathy for one another. They know that profound feelings, especially negative ones, can make anypony do unreasonable and even bad things. You were lonely and that matters. You shouldn't ever think that your very genuine and understandable feelings weren't—aren't important."

Luna thought about this for a moment; she looked at Twilight and smiled slightly, but she still seemed uncertain. Oh well, Twilight had given her something to think about, and that was all she could really do.

Unfortunately, now the Princess was clearly downtrodden. They were supposed to be cheering her up, not reminding her of her past transgressions.

"Hey, I have an idea," Said Twilight, "why don't we pull some pranks, have you ever tried before?"

"I haven't ever pulled a prank, but my sister is often trying to cheer me up in just this manner." She answered, in a tone that suggested she the pranks did not, in fact, cheer her up.

"Okay, so you at least know the basics, good. Let's go after Rainbow Dash first, because if we prank someone before her she'll catch on too quickly. I should warn you, though, if you're going to prank Rainbow Dash you must be prepared for her retaliation."

"I think I can handle it. I'm not as fragile as some may think." The princess said good-naturedly.

"Okay. So, pranking Rainbow Dash—it's going to be difficult she knows every trick in the book."

The two pondered for a while; Luna made the first suggestion. "What if we made her a cake baked with salt and vinegar instead of sugar?"

"Actually, that would be a perfect prank to pull on Pinkie Pie, she loves cake. We should save that one for her. Very devious by the way, your highness."

"Well I learned from the master herself." She said sarcastically.

"Hmmm." Twilight hummed while she pondered.

"What does she have an affinity for, besides racing?" Luna asked.

"Let's see, pranking—obviously—daredevil acts, showing off, and being lazy." Twilight said, knowing all of those things were useless.

"Oh, well here's an idea. It might be a bit too complicated though. What if we act as though we are helping her prank the others but sabotage her pranks so none of them work?" Princess Luna suggested with a wicked tone.

Twilight smiled deviously—as deviously as Twilight Sparkle could smile—and nodded. "Wow, I like that idea. You're quite clever Luna."

Luna smiled and blushed at the praise. "Let's go talk to her."

\\\

"Oh, Rainbow Dash! Hey, Luna and I have a fun idea!" Twilight exclaimed as they stood over the lounging pony.

This got her attention; she opened her eyes and sat up. "Oooo! I love fun. Let's hear it then."

"We want you to help us pull pranks on the others." Twilight whispered.

"Finally! I thought this was going to be totally dull—er, I mean no offense Luna," she quickly amended, looking embarrassed, "it's not you it's just that hanging around the house isn't really my thing I prefer to racing around-"

Luna waved her messy apology off. "It's fine Rainbow Dash, I understand completely."

"We were thinking about pulling the old 'dribble cup' on Pinkie Pie, you know she makes the most hilarious face when she falls for that," said Twilight.

Rainbow sighed. "I don't know...I trick her with that prank every other day."

"Please, Rainbow. So Luna can see her reaction?" Twilight pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

Rainbow rolled her eyes but relented. "Fine. But then I get to decide the others."

"Deal." The other two said together.

"Let me get it from my bag." She said flying over to it. It didn't take her long to locate in her pack.

'You brought it with you?" Twilight asked with mirth when Rainbow returned.

"Have you met me? Of course I brought it with me. It was the first thing I packed." She said matter-of-factly; Twilight looked at Luna and shook her head in amazement.

\\\

Twilight offered to set the prank up with Luna and Rainbow blocking her from Pinkie's view to lessen the risk of suspicion. With Rainbow's back to her, she filled a regular cup with the pink fizzy drink and placed the joke glass beneath the table. Once this was done she handed the normal glass to Rainbow.

The three waited until Pinkie Pie took a break from pigging out on sweets to get a drink. Rainbow intercepted her and proffered the joke cup.

"Oh, Pinkie Pie. I got a drink for you." Rainbow said with extra charm.

"Thanks Rainbow, you're such a sweetie-wheaty. Although you're not wheat colored at all, so should I say sweetie-bluey?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's mile-a-minute thinking-aloud. She watched with much amusement as Pinkie Pie took a sip. However, she gulped down the whole drink—as is her innocently gluttonous way—without incident.

Behind Rainbow, Twilight and Luna fought to silence their snickering at Rainbow's confused expression. When they were a bit more in control, they instigated phase two.

"Rainbow?" Luna asked, feigning disappointed confusion. When Rainbow turned to shrug at Luna, Twilight used her magic to switch the cup in Pinkie's hand with the joke cup. Pinkie, being Pinkie, did not question this.

Rainbow turned away from Luna and snatched the cup back inspecting it. Sure enough, it was her faithful joke cup. She looked back in forth between it and Pinkie Pie confusedly. Her look had a touch of fright to it as she was often subject to Pinkie's bizarre array of powers, which included knowing where to find her at any given time or place and having an affinity for inventing complicated machinery whenever she ran into a problem. Was this another part of her weirdness?

Seeing how Rainbow was so utterly flabbergasted had Luna and Twilight dying with laughter, which they were finding increasingly difficult to stifle.

End

I really like this one, it's deep and emotional (at least in the middle there), a tone/theme that is only meaningful to me when it regards friendship (hence my love for the ponies).