Vincent woke up on the morning of April First, not feeling as though today was going to be any different as compared to any other day. He softly brushed the side of Lucy's face, gave her a good-morning kiss, and walked out the door to the rest of the apartment.

When he was immediately showered in some of Lucy's 'toys' from her time in Heat, that should have been his first clue that today was going to be...different. Fortunately, they were all clean, and the bucket they had been held in was made of lightweight plastic, as he found out once it bounced off of his head. Indeed, the most damaging thing about this particular prank had been Sam laughing his metallic behind off.

"Happy April's Fool's day, bro," Sam said, raising his usual cup of coffee in a mock-toast. "Hoopa's favorite holiday."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," the Kadabra grumbled as he sent the toys back to the closet. Once he'd noticed that the bucket had come from the rooftop garden, that was returned from whence it came as well, and the psychic joined his older brother at the table. With a bit of thought and attention, Vincent began assembling a cup of coffee for himself...no small feat considering he'd just woken up and sorely wanted one.

"Tradition is, you play harmless pranks on your friends or family," Sam rejoined as he drank from his cup. "And now that we actually can, I'm sure I can limit myself to just one or two." Draining the mug of caffeine before him, Sam nodded at Vincent and got up. "Well, you take care, bro."

Had Vincent been looking, he'd have seen a blur for a moment before the Bug/Steel type left the apartment with a slight smile on his face. It would be a few minutes before what had happened would become obvious...

The psychic sat back and sipped at his coffee, thankful for the invigorating effects to help get his mind up and running. He'd been idly thinking on a number of his projects that he had running in the back of his head before his trains of thought were interrupted. Namely by a plate of pancakes being put before him by Jeanne. The Kadabra smiled and pulled his mother into a hug.

"Thanks mom," the Psi 'mon said to the smaller Flower 'mon. In response, Jeanne turned and returned the hug as well, before giving the psychic's chest armor a few pats.

"Anytime, dear. Now eat up, something tells me you're going to need it today."

Vincent nodded and set the Bellossom back on the ground. She returned to the kitchen and began work on a set of pancakes for Lucy as well, just as her son began to dig into his breakfast.

Had she hung around a moment longer, she would have seen his cheeks flush red, his eyes and nose water, and him clenching at his mouth and throat. With a quick and dirty application of power, the Psychic called up a glass of milk and began chugging it, before gasping as the drink vanished entirely down his throat.

"...Spicy..." was all he managed to say, but he had a fair idea as to who had done it and how.

Oh no, this does NOT end here! One, two, three, four...I declare Prank War!

Lucy had been in the middle of her workday, instructing ponies how to properly defend themselves from angry 'mon. More often than not the simple solution was to run or dodge away from their blows, then get a trained guard to deal with the rampaging 'mon. Another portion of her day was helping the ponies to identify Types, and what would or wouldn't work against them. The Lucario had been demonstrating a grapple on a pegasus mare, both for the class and for the mare. The goal was to both show the class what to avoid, along with teaching them how to think outside the box and break free from this fairly standard hold.

"So your wings are pinned," Lucy stated simply. "And I'm holding you in such a fashion that your hooves wouldn't be able to easily impact me. Anything more involved than a quick kick, I would see coming and be able to dodge, even now. What do you do?"

The mare wiggled for a moment, before Lucy found herself suddenly swatted in the nose with a long tail. She couldn't help it; the suddenness of the situation caused the Lucario to sneeze and release her grip. The mare shot out from the Aura 'mon's grip, and Lucy saw her wind up for a punch. One she could have blocked, quite easily. And one she had been moving to block.

But just before she could complete the motion, her ears perked up and caught wind of a most intriguing sound...

Thus distracted, Lucy failed to block the punch of the mare, giving her no other option but to roll with it and hope it wasn't going to sting too badly. Thankfully, the mare had pulled her punch at the last second, turning it from something that might sting to something that might not even hurt in a few minutes.

Lucy wasn't the only one caught off-guard. The mare blinked a few times before pulling her hoof back and looking from both it to where it'd impacted the Lucario's form. "What...just happened?"

"You got lucky," Lucy responded, rotating her joints and firing off a cocky smile. "Let's see if you can do it again."

Funny, though. For some reason, the sound she'd heard was oddly reminiscent of the can opener they kept in the apartment...

Sam had been in the middle of seeing to a table of ponies, thankful for the Float Stone that Seth had left behind, that Bit had also fashioned into a wonderful tie pin. It just made moving around so much easier. He had just filled up an order of drinks from the kitchen when he felt...weird. Heavy again.

The change was so disorienting and sudden, he tripped with the tray of drinks and spilled them all on himself. The liquid got everywhere and caused him to slip and fall flat on his back. Naturally, Mary and Fredrick laughed at the sight for a few seconds.

"What happened, Sam? You were doing so well on your record of 'days without any accidents'," Fredrick asked, wiping the tears of laughter away with one talon.

Sam made to explain what had occurred by looking at his tie, only to see the pin back on it...and feel himself weighing the appropriate amount again. "I guess the pin was just loose," he muttered, before unfastening and refastening the Float Stone, just to be sure.

"Yes, well, now that you've had your fun, see to table four, won't you?" the Shiny Sandslash chef asked as she walked back into the kitchen.

Funny, though. For a moment there, he could have sworn there was a blue flash of light out of the corner of his eyes...

Vincent sat back at the kitchen table that evening, happy with his light revenge that he had exacted throughout the day. Nobody got seriously hurt, and his siblings had taken the jests in good stride. Nobody needed to know of his involvement at all...

That was when Lucy and Sam burst through the front door and threw cream pies into his face. The sudden, unfamiliar situation, combined with the shock and surprise, allowed the pair of pies to hit their mark.

Silence fell in the home of the Nurem family as the tins and the pies they held slowly slid down Vincent's head, before plopping onto the floor. Whipped cream covered his whole head, and he blinked a few times at his brother and sister. "I'm guessing you noticed?" he asked quite simply.

Lucy and Sam nodded once, smirking all the while. "Getting you back for your little pranks," Sam said as he moved to wash himself off.

"Sadly we didn't have time to plan more than this," Lucy sighed, before pulling up a seat at the table and joining Vincent for their mid-afternoon meal. With a small flash of blue, Vincent was mostly clean again, and tilting his head at the Lucario.

"You mean, besides the pranks you two already played on me?"

Lucy blinked in confusion. "We...didn't play any pranks on you, Vincent."

"But if it wasn't you guys..." Vincent said, trailing off as his mind finished the question. Then who was it?

In her own room, just across the way, Christine smirked as her hearing picked up on the family being reunited and thoroughly confused. Vincent thought he'd just finished a closed loop of retribution, and his siblings were busy confirming that he was the one to start it in the first place.

If anyone were to look in her living room, they would see a plastic bucket with a small container of Chili Powder sitting inside it...

Author's Notes:

Just a wee bit of proof I'm not dead! Aus and I tend to cook up wonderful ideas when we're left alone, unsupervised, in Gdocs.

I can count something like four separate documents of non-canon stuff relating to our stories at least, along with a few ideas tossed around that could be cobbled together into a coherent plotline or alternative universe or story altogether.

Basically we like to write, is what I'm saying.

Oh, and as for whether or not this is canon with the main line?...

...Eh, you decide!