There was no one around. This wasn't usually a good sign, but Lyra needed somewhere to practice that she wasn't going to interrupt anyone and wasn't going to break any windows. The edge of Sweet Apple Acres seemed the perfect place to go. Applejack and Big Mac were busy in the farthest fields, and Granny Smith could sleep through a tornado. Lyra had seen it happen once. Applebloom was at School. Winona was the only member of the family who had come to see what she was doing, and the dog had left the instant she saw the flute. Lyra couldn't blame her. If she hadn't needed, wanted the money, she would never have accepted the offer. Now it was the principal of the thing. She had never wanted to learn to play the flute. She'd have never even considered it. But now? Now she wasn't about to give up on it.

She settled down against the fence and uncased the flute. For a moment, nothing happened. Then she raised the flute, and blew a note. It sounded right and she began to play. Everything went fine, even as unbeknownst to her, dozens upon dozens of fruit bats landed in the tree behind her, entranced by her music.

And then, as the universe dictated, she missed a note. The bats, trance broken were now angry at being woken in the day time. So they attacked the source of their irritation. Lyra found herself the focus of an assault.

“BATS!” she screamed as she raced down the road towards the big pond.

Applejack and Big Mac saw the bats chasing her.

“Fruit bats.” Applejack's eyes narrowed. "Mac, I'm going to see Fluttershy and the girls.”

“Eeyup.”

“Help fish Lyra out of the pond wouldja?”

“Eeyup.”

---

Lyra sat in the chair by the fire, shivering and sneezing. “I quit.”

“No, you don't.” Bon-bon said, continuing her cooking.

“Yes. I give up on learning this stupid thing.” she jabbed an accusing hoof at the Flute, dried and safely returned to it's case. Then she realized it let in a draft and jerked the hoof back in.

“No you don't. You're just having a bad time of it.” Bon-bon said, and then glared at the platter containing two bowls of cabbage soup. Lyra saw her glaring.

“I got it.” her horn glowed and she levitated the platter to the table between the two chairs.

“Thanks.” there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.” Bon-bon called.

“Go away.” Lyra said at the same moment. Bon-bon glared at the green unicorn. Lyra sneezed at her.

“I'll get it.” Bon-bon said. Lyra slurped her soup. Bon-bon walked to the door and pushed it open. Robert stood on the other side of the door.

“Is Lyra home?” he asked.

“Yes,but she's not really in the mood for visitors.” Bon-bon replied.

“Oh. I was hoping to apologize for yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“I was the cause of the rocks.” Robert said. "Part of it anyway.”

“Alright, come on in.” Bon-bon said, stepping out of the way.

“Who's there?” Lyra asked, between sips.

“My name is Robert, you might have seen me around?” Lyra nodded. "I came over to apologize for the rocks yesterday.”

“That was you?”

“Well, me and Twilight. She was helping me learn shielding, and I was bouncing the rocks farther than we thought.”

“Oh. I guess that's what Pinkie meant. She said something about shields and rocks, but we were just happy when they stopped.” Lyra said. She sneezed again. "Sorry.”

“Not a problem.” Robert sighed. "I hope I didn't ruin your day.”

“Not too much.” Bon-bon said. "We didn't get hurt, which is the important thing.”

“Anything I can do to make it up to you two?”

“You don't happen to know how to play the flute do you?”

“No. I have no musical talent at all. I was actually banned from playing instruments after the incident with the buffalo.” Robert winced. Lyra blinked.

“Well, if you insist on doing something, I could use a day off from my stand in the market.” Bon-bon said. "I mean, it's not necessary.”

“Sounds easy enough.” Robert said. Bon-bon opened her mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Lyra's spit take spraying them with Cabbage Soup.

“Oh boy are you in for it.” Lyra laughed, and then coughed.

“What happened?” Robert asked.

“I was viciously attacked by monster bats.” Lyra said.

“Fruit bats. They attacked her for her flute playing.” Bon-bon corrected.

“Monster fruit bats.” Lyra expounded.

“Ah. Where?”

“Sweet Apple Acres.” Lyra answered, shuddering slightly.

“Which then explains the dearth of elements.” Lyra stared at him. "They're not anywhere to be found in town, ere go they must be out there helping with the bats.”

“Ah.... chooo!” Lyra's chair rattled.

“I'll leave you to the ministrations of your lady love then.” Robert bowed and walked to the door.

“Thank you for coming over. If you're serious about my stand, why don't you come over about noon on Thursday so I can show you how to run it. That's usually a slow day, and then I'll let you know when to take it for me.” Bon-bon offered.

“I shall see thee Thursday.” Robert bowed his head and stepped outside. Bon-bon closed the door, and trotted back to Lyra.

“That was cruel.” Lyra said.

“He offered.” Bon-bon shrugged. "I'll know Thursday if he's up to the challenge. I told him it was a slow day.”

“You sure you're not evil?” Lyra asked.

“Maybe just a little.” Bon-bon grinned.

---

Robert found himself at a bit of a loss. He'd come into town to see Twilight. She was out at Sweet Apple Acres, and he wasn't sure when she'd be back. So he trotted downtown instead. Spike was on his way back from the market, carrying a bunch of bags of vegetables and fruits. He was struggling slightly.

“Hello Spike, anything I can help you with?” Robert asked.

“Oh, hi Robert. Mind helping with these?” Spike shifted the bags.

“Not at all.” The bags rose in an orange glow.

“Thanks. Twilight's off with the girls so I'm home alone.” Spike led the way into the Library.

“So I heard. Mind the company?”

“Not at all. It's either you or the Crusaders, and don't tell them I said it, but you're slightly less destructive.” Spike grinned at him.

“Slightly less?” Robert said and put a paw on his chest. "Then I shall have to try that much harder.” Spike rolled his eyes.

“Please don't. It's bad enough cleaning up after Twilight and the girls.”

“Okay, when you put it that way.” Robert looked around. "So, what fun and exciting chores have you got lined up?”

“Nothing. Restocking the icebox was the last thing on the list for the day.”

“Really?” Robert grinned. “And what did you plan to do with the rest of the day?”

“I was going to read some comics. Why, what have you got in mind?”

“It just so happens, that I owe Rainbow Dash a prank. The problem is that her house is all the way up in the sky, so I have to wait for her to come down.”

“I might know a way. Come on.” Spike trotted into the Library and Robert followed him. He spent a few moments looking around and climbed a ladder. "Here we go.” He slid down the ladder and set the book on the stand. "This is Twilight's Cloudwalking spell. Think you can cast it?”

Robert read the pages and studied the spell for a few minutes. “Looks doable. But there's still the problem of getting up there.”

“That's easy.”

---

Fifteen minutes later, the balloon was floating up towards Rainbow Dash's cloud home. Spike threw a magical rope out and caught a mooring cloud. “Alright, spell time.”

“Right, let me see if it's going to work.” Robert's eyes flashed and then his paws. "Umm... if this doesn't work, don't tell anyone, okay?”

“My lips are sealed.” Spike turned a key and threw it away.

“Here I go.” Robert jumped over the side of the balloon and sand immediately to his belly. "Don't mention this either. Needs more juice.” Robert's eye's flashed. He disappeared, screaming. "I regret nothing!”

Ten minutes later, they were there again.

“I missed the note about needing to cancel it before recasting it.” Robert explained.

“Sure, I believe you.” Spike said, laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. Let's try this again.” Robert concentrated, and his eyes flashed. He jumped over the side, and landed on the clouds. "There we go.” he cast the spell on Spike, who jumped over and nodded.

“Okay, so what have we got?”

“Pink dye, yellow dye.” Spike dug in his bag. "Itching powder isn't going to do any good.” he grinned suddenly. "However, this might just do the trick.” he held up a can.

“You are one truly evil little dragon.” Robert smiled. "Give me the dye, and you plant that.” Spike passed him the dye. The hard part was finding his way around the cloud house. The second floor didn't really have stairs. Fortunately, it wasn't too far of a jump. Robert bunched himself up and leapt. He caught the edge of the second floor balcony and pulled himself up. The bathroom was down the hall. Robert skimmed through the bottles. Perfect, mane and tail Shampoo and coat wash. He set the Pink dye down and copied the look of the Shampoo perfectly. He spent a few minutes examining it, then moved on to the coat wash. By the time he was done, Spike was waiting.

“Hang on, I've got one more thing.” Robert grinned. He tied into Spike's Prank. "Get the itching powder. “ Spike raised an eye brow. "Trust me.”

“Oh, I get it.” Spike grinned. And I'm the evil one?”

“Yes, yes you are.” Robert laughed. “Come on, let's get out of here before she catches us.”

“Good idea.”

---

They spent the rest of the day in the Library reading comics. And arguing over them. “Fili-second could totally out run Quick Fang.”

“Bah, Quick Fang is totally faster. That's his power, to be faster than anyone else.” Robert defended.

“Yeah, but he's got no turning. She'd just duck around a corner and be gone before he got around it.” Spike replied.

“True, but he'd get there first, and be in motion before she was around the corner.” Robert answered.

“Are you two reading comics?” Twilight asked, coming in the door.

“No, quantum physics.” Spike answered. Twilight blinked. Spike and Robert high-fived.

“Did I miss something?” Twilight asked.

“No.” the pair answered.

“Oookay.” Twilight shook her head. "Right, either of you seen my copy of Bat species?”

“Top shelf, right hand side.” Spike said. "Should be with the notes on Fluttershy's stare.” Spike said, anticipating her next question through some unknown reasoning.

“How... nevermind. Too much time around Pinkie I suspect.” Twilight blinked upstairs, then back down a few minutes later. "Thanks. Be back soon.” Robert raised an eyebrow.

“Chances are she cast a spell to deal with the Bats and it hit Fluttershy as well.” Spike said. "She did something with parasprites, and that backfired.”

“Parasprites?” Robert asked.

“Little bugs, about the size of a tennis ball, with a massive appetite. They started eating all the food in town. Twilight cast a spell to stop them. They started eating the town.” Spike flipped a page. "Pinkie got rid of them.”

“I'm probably going to regret asking.”

“One pony band.” Spike chuckled. "Twilight thought she'd gone even crazier than usual, but she saved the day.”

“Yup, knew I was going to regret that.” Robert turned his own page. "Hey, that pony looks familiar.”

“Yeah, so does that tiger...”

“CROSSOVER!”

---

Rainbow Dash was exhausted. All she wanted was a warm shower and a rest. Chasing Fluttershy was harder than she expected. She winged her way up to her cloud home and nudged the mooring cloud back into shape, not even realizing she'd done it. She passed through the door, and flapped to the second floor. The thundercloud she kept for the shower was cold, but she manipulated it to warmth with a minimum of effort, and stepped under it.

“Ah, nothing like a nice warm shower to loosen up the muscles.” she had considered not showering, but caught a whiff of herself and decided to wash. She shampooed her mane and tail and then scrubbed the sweat out of her coat. Tired as she was, she thought little of the strange feeling of the hygiene products. It wasn't until she walked into her bedroom, shook the last of the water from her mane and leapt into bed that she found out what was wrong.

The impact of a pegasus on the cloud surface of the bed triggered the first prank. The thundercloud in a can had a four second fuse, just enough time for Rainbow to roll over and snuggle in. The next moment, thunder barked, sending her shooting up to the ceiling. She yelped, and looked around to see the source of the solution. A message flickered into the air before her.

“You have been pranked. The ball is in your court.” The cloud writing was clear and precise. It wasn't signed, but Rainbow Dash knew exactly who wrote it. She bashed through the clouds. The itching started small. She scratched at it as she dug into the cloud for the canned thunder. It got worse as she dumped the now spent can into the trash. By the time she got back to her bed, she was scratching all over. She realized what had been done.

“I'm so going to let him have it now.”