Pranking
Written by RandomString Proofread by Knight of Cerebus

Twilight awoke. She was feeling warm, contented and extremely relaxed. She stretched and sighed; she couldn't spend the day lying in bed, however tempting the concept was. With a yawn, she saved and then got up.

Li'l Twi was sitting beside the bed, looking at her with fearful eyes, brimming with tears. Twilight flinched internally at the sight but opened her arms to the filly. Li'l Twi rushed in and Twilight hugged her.

"I'm so sorry I shouted at you last night. It was a really bad day, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Li’l Twi sniffled and blew her nose onto Twilight’s coat. “I’m sorry I annoyed you.”

By great exercise of willpower, Twilight ignored the spectral snot that had just been deposited on her back, “It’s okay. Today is going to be a much better day. Speaking of which, I need start on the plan."

Twilight went downstairs, Li'l Twi riding on her back, and prepared to cast the spell that Luna had taught her last night. She was actually familiar with some of it already – she would be casting a semi-autonomous illusion, similar to Li'l Twi, but this time it would be visible to everyone.

Twilight started weaving the spell, her face scrunched in concentration. This spell was more complex than powerful, but that offered its own challenges for Twilight, as her sheer power made delicate spellcasting difficult. Nevertheless, an indistinct illusion of a silver-coated pegasus soon took form before her. She then began to sculpt the illusion into the pony that Luna had shown her, aided by Li'l Twi, who happily filled in holes in her memory.

Despite Li'l Twi's suggestions, Twilight kept true to the original. This resulted in a cute silver-coated, blue maned pegasus mare with an open book cutie mark, rather than a black, bat-winged, fanged monster with a flaming mane and tail and a crossed-swords cutie mark. Li'l Twi didn't try to hide her disappointment.

By this the time the spell was done, Spike was awake and hungry (the two states were practically synonymous for him). He wandered into the stacks to find two mares waiting for him.

"Whuh?"

"Good morning Spike, I hope you slept well. This is Midnight Whispers, or rather an illusion of her. I'm going to need your help to convince everyone that she's real."

"Oh! Sure thing! I'll act natural around her," Spike casually reached out to pat the pegasus' leg, and his claw passed straight through, "Oops, I see what you mean."

Midnight turned to look at Spike with a grin, causing him to yelp and stagger backwards until his tail hit a bookshelf.

"Very natural, Spike. Good job," laughed Twilight, helping him back up, "She may be an illusion, but she will react to her surroundings. And, um, she will be very affectionate towards me. Just treat her like you do Great Aunt Star Twinkle - desperately embarrassed to be around her, but trying hard not to show it. Now, shall we go and see what’s for breakfast?”

“Runny waffles, brown daisies, old juice, smelly quartz turnovers and turning milk?” suggested Li'l Twi in a voice only Twilight could hear.

“Well that wasn’t a very good breakfast,” Twilight told her, “and it’s important to start the day well, so I think we’ll try something else this time. Let's eat out.”

-------------------

Midnight had a simple task: act affectionately towards Twilight, so she trotted next to her with one wing draped over Twilight's back. Li'l Twi happily rode standing on Twilight's head and shoulders, looking forward like a brave explorer of new lands standing on the prow of her ship. Spike found his favourite spot taken by a wing and grumpily walked beside Twilight on the other side.

Twilight ignored the stares and whispers as she lead her strange entourage to Sugar Cube Corner. Pinkie Pie was managing the counter whilst the Cakes baked the day's fare. She immediately brightened as Twilight came in, and ran out to greet her. She screeched to a halt when she saw the pegasus that accompanied her.

"Oh wow! You're new! I love meeting new ponies. My name's Pinkie Pie! What's yours?"

"Midnight Whispers," replied the pegasus in a voice well suited to the name.

"Hello, Midnight. I know that–" Pinkie then noticed where Midnight was resting her wing. "Ooh! Are you Twilight's extra special somepony? That's wonderful!"

Twilight had been watching the conversation nervously, and had fast reflexes, but not Pinkie Pie fast. Before she could warn her friend, Pinkie dived forward to hug Midnight. She fell right through the illusion, out through the door and into the street, tumbling head over hooves. Twilight rushed to help her friend up. Thankfully it was still early and the few ponies around were too sleepy to have seen anything other than Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.

Twilight pulled Pinkie back inside and sat her down at an empty table.

"Sorry Pinkie. She's an illusion. You can't touch her."

“Twilight, I get that there aren't many bookworms in this town, but isn't that a little desperate?"

"No! I mean, yes. Urgh. It's complicated. Short form: I'm currently dating Princess Luna, but she wants to keep it quiet. There are rumours that I'm dating Princess Celestia, well more than dating, and we want to stop those rumours without bringing Princess Luna into it. We hatched a plan where I get seen around town with an affectionate pegasus, so that the rumours focus on that instead. Ponies will think that the signs they interpreted to mean that I was dating Princess Celestia actually meant I was dating Midnight.”

"Ohhhh. So you're pretending to date Midnight so that people don't spread gossip about you dating Princess Celestia, leaving you free to date Princess Luna in peace? Why didn't you say so?"

Twilight buried her head in her hooves with a moan.

"Well, it's complicated to me. Look, I'll explain more at the picnic today. For the moment, could you please get us some breakfast muffins and some tea?"

"Muffins!" shouted Li'l Twi happily, earning a mane-ruffle from Pinkie, which in turn confused Spike.

"Oh, Pinkie Pinkie," said Li'l Twi earnestly, "you need to bake more muffins! Lots of people will want them this morning!"

"Okie dokie lokie. I'll get right on it." Pinkie Pie pronked to the back of the shop to speak with the Cakes and fetch their order.

Twilight looked at Li'l Twi quizzically.

"Last today Pinkie Pinkie complained about a run on muffins, so I thought I'd warn her."

"That's very kind of you. Even though I'm still not sure how she can see and hear you."

"Because she's Pinkie!"

"Yes, that's where I usually run into difficulty." Twilight sighed.

Breakfast was pleasant, Midnight was highly affectionate and Twilight was attracting a lot of covert attention. Normally she shied away from the public eye, but this was necessary. She needed to put up with standing out in the crowd for the morning, to give the right gossip a chance to spread. Then she could get revenge in the afternoon.

After breakfast, Twilight paid and left. A contented Spike, his ravenous hunger subdued for a short while, was sent back to open the library while Twilight got started on the shopping, accompanied by Midnight. Li'l Twi had disappeared briefly, as she tended to do from time to time now, but was back again, riding her head.

"Good morning, Applejack. Please don't try and shake hooves with Midnight here, she's an illusion."

“Hello,” said Midnight, bowing gracefully.

"Good morning, Sugarcube, uh, Midnight. Ah was hearing a lot of gossip about you and a pegasus this morning when Ah was setting up, thought it was a lot of hooey. Ah see Ah was wrong. But why in tarnation are you dating this here illusion?"

"Sorry Applejack, there were some rumours going around that you didn't hear that I was doing a lot more than just dating with Princess Celestia. Midnight here should stop those rumours from getting out of hand."

"Yeah, this town is awful gossipy at times. At least you didn't try and conjure up some disaster to distract everypony. Nice solution, Twilight."

Twilight clopped her hooves together nervously, "Aheh, yes, no disaster coming from me. No siree. Not today."

"You all right, sugarcube?"

"I'm fine, just thinking on how much worse this could have gone. Oh, but I do have important news to share, at the picnic. I'll tell you everything then."

"Ah'm looking forward to it. Anywho, looks like Ah'm getting a bit of a queue here, so..."

Twilight quickly bought some apples and allowed herself to be dragged by an impatient Li'l Twi to the next stall she needed. It didn't take long for them to finish everything on the shopping list, but when Twilight started heading towards the Library, Li'l Twi impatiently lead her in a different direction.

"Uh, Li'l Twi," whispered Twilight out of the corner of her mouth, "why are you heading to the Carousel Boutique?"

"You need to tell Rarity about her problem customer! She mentioned him during the picnic last today. He wasted an hour getting measured up and discussion fashions before he mentioned that he was shopping for his wife. You need to tell her!"

This visit wasn't as quick as Twilight had hoped, as Rarity was instantly taken by the pegasus, attracted to Midnight's coloration and then distressed to find that she couldn't dress the mare up.

"Twilight, darling, I appreciate how keen you are to show that you're a fully grown independent mare, but one usually gets a marefriend before showing her off. Doing it the other way around lacks style."

"Rarity, you know who I'm dating. I can hardly parade Princess Luna around Ponyville. Half the town would run away in terror, and the other half would be bowing and scraping."

"True, I suppose. For someone who claims to detest attention, you certainly participate in a lot of parades. Doth the mare protest too much?”

Twilight spluttered at the accusation, before settling with just glaring daggers at Rarity.

“I do like your choice of illusionary partner,” Rarity continued, “but you really should accessorise your accessory. There's so much that can be done with jewellery these days. Maybe you could modify the illusion a tad?"

"I'll think about it, but I kinda like her just they way she is. Oh! I do want to place an order for myself though."

Rarity instantly sprang to attention, “Of course, darling! You’re dating now, and a princess, no less. You’ll need ball gowns, evening dresses and hats– Hats! Oh my! I’ve been dreaming of this day for so long. Where shall we start?”

“Uh, I was thinking of a naughty nurse’s outfit.”

Rarity glared her recently received daggers back at Twilight.

“Sorry, Rarity. You know that Princess Luna doesn’t want to go public yet, and I’ve already told you how much she loves to play. I want to visit in a couple of days time, and well, it’s either that or a maid’s outfit and–”

“Too much information!”, Rarity clutched her hooves to her ears and then sighed, “Very well. I will make a ugh naughty nurse’s outfit– only for you! But! In return you will promise me that when Princess Luna does go public, you will only be seen in court in my dresses.”

“Thanks Rarity,” said Twilight, hugging her, “I promise. I’d offer to show off your nurse’s outfit to Canterlot high society as well, but I’m worried that you’d actually accept.”

Rarity sighed in a motherly fashion and shooed both mares out of the boutique.

----------------------

Twilight managed to get back in time to help Spike with some of the chores. In return, Spike made the sandwiches for the picnic.

Twilight and Midnight left for the picnic early, taking a detour by way of the train station to pick up the latest timetable. That done, they headed to the park; unlike last time, Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow happily welcomed them both when they arrived.

Pinkie had clearly explained Twilight's mysterious companion to Rainbow as she flew in close to inspect the illusion from all angles, before deciding that the mare was safe enough. Rainbow was disturbed how the Midnight tracked her with her eyes and had to wave a hand through her body to convince herself that she was an illusion. Midnight blew a raspberry at her when she did, causing Dash to fall back on her haunches with surprise, and Pinkie Pie to burst into laughter.

"Hello Twilight, I see that you decided to bring your imaginary friend," said Applejack with a grin.

"Hello Applejack,” said Twilight, pretending to try and stop Midnight from nuzzling her neck, “Sorry, yes. I need to be convincing about this if I'm to deflect those nasty rumours."

"Ah understand. What Ah don't know is how those darn rumours started in the first place."

"Aheh, I'll explain when everypony is here."

It didn't take long as Rarity and Fluttershy were following not far behind Twilight, chatting animatedly. Everypony settled down as Twilight made her announcement.

"Right, girls. I told Rarity and Fluttershy this yesterday, but you all should know: I am currently dating Princess Luna. I've had strong feelings for her for a very long time and I finally confessed to her two days ago. She accepted me and now we're an item."

Twilight's friends offered their heartfelt congratulations, but she motioned for silence.

"I, uh, have a bit more to confess. Um, well...," Twilight shifted in embarrassment, searching for the right words, "It turns out that when a mare spends a thousand years on the moon, she can get a little tense. I, uh, helped her relax. Several times. Including in my dreams last night. Pinkie, I think you have a Pinkie Pie sense when that happens."

"Oooh, was that what it was? Well, I hope you help Princess Luna relax a lot, that sense was fun."

"I certainly plan to, Pinkie."

"Are we talking about what I think we're talking about?" asked Applejack.

"Sex," said Midnight Whisper, with quiet amusement.

"Whoo!", exclaimed Dash, "Way to go, Twilight! Tell us EVERYTHING!"

"Tonight. Slumber party, my place. It's been a while, but from what I recall from my book, slumber parties are the right place for salacious gossip."

Her friends all eagerly agreed to attend.

"Right. Now that's all sorted, lets eat!" Rainbow was never one to lose sight of her priorities.

"Good idea," said Pinkie, "Let's see... I brought some tea–"

Twilight whipped her head around, "Uh, weren't you going to bring toffee apples, Pinkie?"

"Nope. I was going to bring a chocolate cake, actually, but then I changed my mind. Would you like a cup of tea, Twilight?"

Twilight, blushed but accepted a cup. A quick sip proved that it was good, but not as good as Luna's dream tea.

"Wait a minute, Pinkie, Ah was bringing the drinks this time: the last of the autumn cider. You were going to bring dessert."

"I'm sorry, Applejack. I just wanted some tea. Don't worry, I brought some super-duper scrumptious dessert too. They're a new experiment of mine: flowers dipped in chocolate!"

Twilight choked on her tea but Rarity was quick to assist with a pat on the back.

"Do you want to try some chocolate flowers, Twilight? I tried one when I was making them, they're very good."

"Uh, not yet, thanks, Pinkie. I'd love to try some for afters though. You have a lot of things in your basket."

"Sure thing. I'll save you a few. And I don't have that much in here, just the tea, the flowers, and these," Pinkie pulled out a couple of paddles and a ping-pong ball, "just in case anyone wanted to play."

Twilight stared at the paddles, blushing furiously. Rarity snickered at her reaction.

"What did you dream last night, darling?" asked Rarity archly.

Twilight suddenly noticed that Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie were also laughing at her.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Ah'm sorry sugarcube. Pinkie just said that your reaction would be priceless, and it sure was."

"Pinkie?" Twilight asked sternly.

Pinkie just looked extremely innocent, "I know nothing. I mean really, when I think of everything I don't know, there's just so MUCH of it. I know so little in comparison that I might as well know nothing at all! I'm only a little pony, Twilight! Why do you ask me so many difficult questions?"

Twilight growled with frustration, but regained her temper, "It's okay, Pinkie. It was very funny and I'm sure that the flowers will be delicious," she turned to the others, "I'll explain, tonight."

The six friends settled down to eat, Midnight resting next to Twilight affectionately and Li'l Twi once again chasing butterflies. Inroads were made into Twilight's sandwiches and Rarity's scones before conversation started again.

"So Twilight,” said Rainbow, “I know that you're going to tell us everything tonight, but can you at least tell us how you got together with Princess Luna in the first place?"

"Oh, you know how it is. You get lost in Castle Canterlot, go through the wrong door and disturb somepony's sleep. You end up having sex as a punishment and it all spirals from there."

"What, really?” asked Pinkie Pie, “'cause that sounds super-cool and fun."

"No, silly, we're dating because I asked her out and she said yes."

The sandwiches were gone and the chocolate-coated flowers were clearly not destined to last much longer before the topic of conversation drifted to Li’l Twi.

"So, Twilight, how did Li'l Twi know about the run on muffins?" asked Pinkie.

"Who on earth is Li'l Twi when she's at home?" asked Applejack.

"Is this related to your foreknowledge of my gentlestallion customer?" asked Rarity.

"Well," answered Twilight, trying to field several questions at once, "I created a time travel spell to help... um, talk... to Luna. And I created a personal assistant called Li'l Twi that only I, and apparently Pinkie, can see, to help with my memory. Today went really badly last time, so I decided to try again. Li'l Twi remembered that both of you mentioned problems the last time I had this picnic, so we decided to help."

"Time travel, like the time you had us disaster proof Equestria for no good reason?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Applejack froze, a scone half-way to her mouth. Twilight caught this out of the corner of her eye, and curiosity stopped her in mid-reply to Rainbow. Applejack said nothing, just sitting frozen in place, eyes locked onto something from another time.

“Applejack, what is it? Applejack?”

Applejack broke free from her trance, but hung her head without saying anything. Twilight missed the tears that were gathering in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah’m sorry. Ah, Ah was remembering,” she ran a hoof across her eyes, wiping away the tears, and looked up with desperate hope in her eyes, "You can go back in time, Twilight? You can undo the past?"

Fluttershy was the first of the others to catch on. She gave a little gasp of sympathy and rushed to hug Applejack. The others realised what was happening one by one, losing smiles and deflating, “Oh!”

"Well, it's limited, but yes," said Twilight guardedly.

"Twilight, my, my parents... They died, Twilight. There was a fire, four years back,” the tears were flowing again, Fluttershy was hugging her tightly, and the others moved to join her, “My maw, she saved me, saved Granny, saved Applebloom,” Applejack was choking out the words, “She... She 'n Mac went back in, t'save my paw – he was trapped. They didn't come out. Ah went in– I was just a filly– oh, there was smoke everywhere, and the noise! The fire was just roaring, like some angry beast from the forest. Ah found Mac. Ah couldn't go in any further, Ah couldn't! Mac was on t'floor, he couldn't breath right, on account of the smoke. Ah dragged him out. Granny stopped me from going back in. I couldn't go back in. An' they didn't get out."

Tears were streaming down Twilight's cheeks.

“Ah, Ah didn’t have friends back then, not like Ah do now. When it was all over, me ‘n Mac just got our heads down and got to work. We don’t talk about it, Granny don’t talk about it and Applebloom don’t remember. Ah remember. Oh, Twilight! Ah’d give anything to have them back!” Applejack broke down into sobbing as her friends tried to comfort her.

Twilight realised with horror that this might be the first time she had spoken about the tragedy to anyone. She could feel her heart breaking in sympathy with Applejack’s pain.

"Applejack, I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry. I can't, Applejack. I can't– the spell only goes back to when I make a save. I saved this morning. I'm sorry, Applejack, I'm sorry."

Twilight hesitantly went to Applejack, trying to convey her sorrow through her tears. Applejack opened her arms and Twilight rushed forward, joining into the hug. The mares cried into each other's manes until they collected themselves and calmed.

The joy was gone from the picnic, and it was finished quickly, with an uncomfortable silence. All six made muted promises to meet up in the library after the day was done and Spike had gone to bed.

They all hugged Applejack closely as they left.

In a sombre mood, Twilight and Midnight returned to the library, a wing draped comfortingly over Twilight's back.

Once there, Twilight reviewed her notes on the time spell, but the calculations were clear. Going back even a week was beyond the power of the spell, even if she could work out a way to move the temporal 'save' anchor. She sighed, and then read up on the next spell called for by Luna’s plan. Work was a welcome distraction from her troubled thoughts.

It was much as she remembered, and casting it was easy enough. She started by putting a mouthful of incense sticks into a small vase, which she put in the the centre of the basement floor. She then sketched out a basic summoner's circle around the vase in blue chalk. She triple-checked the runes and wards, but couldn't find any errors. As an extra precaution, she carefully placed a clay ward stone nearby. Breaking the ward stone with a blow from her hoof would be enough to dispel any creature not native to Equestria from the room, and give any creature that was native a splitting headache.

She lit the sticks with a spark from her horn, taking care to not step near the circle. The air inside the circle soon filled with twisting, pungent smoke. Satisfied that she was ready, Twilight broke out in an ululating chant that would have unnerved anypony unfamiliar with air spirit summoning rituals. The room was soon lit by the glow from her horn as the spell she was weaving was cast into the circle.

It didn't take long for a warp to form, and a few curious air spirits came through. Much like imps and fairies, they had a basic spell-casting ability and a delight in fooling others. Unlike imps they were not malicious, and unlike fairies they would not steal everything in sight.

Normally invisible, the air spirits could be seen by the disturbances they caused in the smoke. Once Twilight deemed that she had enough of the things, she closed the gate and they started talking. It didn't take long to strike a deal – their service for a couple of hours in return for some magical energy. Once the pact was made, Twilight broke the circle and extinguished the incense.

Her first order was that they remove the incense smoke from the basement. Without the smoke, Twilight could just see a faint shimmer in the air where they flew, if she knew where to look.

Before she left, she checked that the circle was gone, the ward stone was stored properly and no unwanted visitors had sneaked in. In truth, even the circle wasn't needed when dealing with the likes of the air spirits, but as pony sages were wont to say, there were three types of summoners: careful ones, dead ones and ones that wished they were dead. Twilight was very careful.

She and Midnight then left the library in Spike's capable claws and went for a tour of Ponyville. Twilight’s heart was still heavy from Applejack’s story, but the sunny day and happy ponies soon cheered her up. Midnight made a point of nuzzling Twilight and resting her head on Twilight’s shoulder as they strolled through the town.

As before, their passage was marked with gossiping, but this time Twilight was fighting back a grin. She angled past Lyra and Bon Bon standing in the shadow of a building, watching them watch her out of the corner of an eye. As one pony leaned in close to another, their tails quietly braided together as if by magic. Twilight paused to look in a shop window, to get a better view of the gossipers as they parted to go different ways. She managed to hold back her gloating as their tails halted Lyra in her tracks and and the much more powerful earth mare even dragged her friend back a couple of paces before she realised what was happening and stopped. It took some confusion and the help of a third mare to separate them.

One couple of gossips found themselves doused with water from a nearby rain-barrel. A circle of gossips found the colour of their manes switched between themselves randomly. A rubber-necking passer-by felt a mysterious pinch on his posterior when passing close by another witness who was staring more blatantly.

Twilight and Midnight walked on, followed by a trail of focussed chaos. Twilight wouldn't normally consider heavy duty pranking as an acceptable activity, but the memories of the problems of the last today broke through her reserves of politeness and Luna had insisted. The air spirits cast weak spells which wouldn’t last long, but they certainly made them count.

Twilight was an obvious culprit for all these pranks, but the mare was clearly escorting her companion, showing neither the focus necessary for spellcasting nor the tell-tale purple glow around her horn.

A delighted Twilight practically danced into the library a couple of hours later. Once safely ensconced in her study, she paid off the sprites and turned to a Li'l Twi who was grinning almost as much as she was.

"Okay, let's review: progress on Luna's plan. What's on the list?"

"Item 1. Save."

"Check", said Twilight.

"Item 2. Create illusionary beautiful-cute-sexy special somepony."

"Check," said Midnight.

"Item 3. Use 'PDA's' to generate counter-rumours"

"Check." said Twilight, happily.

"Item 4. Wait until the mid-day Ponyville train has left for Canterlot to allow the counter-rumours to spread there."

"Check. We even waved to the passengers as the train left, everyone on it saw us."

"Item 5. Revenge!" this last was said with great glee.

"Check! If they're not gossiping about Midnight and me, they should be gossiping about the trick we just pulled. I hereby declare Luna's plan implemented. Hopefully we'll find out if it worked tomorrow."

"Yay!"

"Now we just need to prepare for the girls coming over. Where's my copy of “Slumber 101”? I need to make sure we're properly prepared."

The book was found (Spike was able to retrieve it with surprising ease) and Twilight started reading. At one point, Li'l Twi seemed confused, reading over Twilight's shoulder, but smiled innocently when pressed, and assured her it was nothing. With a shrug, Twilight continued to read the book; there was a lot she had forgotten.

This was a much bigger slumber party than last time, but the book had a very helpful section on how to handle larger parties and Twilight intended to follow it to the letter. In preparation, she created a dunce's cap, complete with a large letter 'D', and put it on, secured with some elastic. She also dug out some embarrassing photos from her foalhood and laid them about the place.

Pacing back and forth, waiting for her friends, Twilight paused as she remembered Luna's lesson from last night and thought about what she had just done. She then found the book again and removed the illusion Rarity had put on it whilst Twilight had been out trolling the gossips. This revealed the real guidance on larger parties (bring more snacks).

Twilight hurriedly hid the embarrassing photos back where they had come from. She then started pacing again. After a moment more, she called out to Li'l Twi.

"Li'l Twi, why didn't you tell me that the book had changed?"

Li'l Twi sat down and looked up at Twilight with the largest, most innocent eyes she could manage, "Um, I thought it would be funny?"

"Hmm. You know, I was just thinking about how odd it was that Pinkie knew the most embarrassing things to bring to the picnic, both times."

"Oh yes. That was strange, wasn't it?" said Li'l Twi in a very nervous fashion.

"And then it occurred to me that only Luna and I knew what happened in my dreams, and I'm sure Luna didn't tell her."

"Well, you know Pinkie Pie, always knowing things before they happen..."

"Yes, I've studied her Pinkie Pie sense, but it is very vague; it doesn't give details. Another option was that Pinkie's personal reality field allowed her to enter our dream, but she would never do that unless it was funny at the time."

"Heh heh, Pinkie and her jokes," said Li'l Twi weakly.

"Then I remembered that Pinkie can see you. Pinkie can hear you. And you knew everything that happened in my dreams. You disappeared during breakfast today, didn't you? Where did you go?"

"Aheh, it's a funny thing really..."

"Betrayed! Betrayed by my own subconscious! Three times, no less! Why?"

"I'm sorry," said Li'l Twi in a small voice, "I just wanted to have some fun."

Twilight glared at her mini-counterpart, but could not sustain her anger in the face of the largest tear-filled puppy-dog eyes she had ever seen – they even put the Cutie Mark Crusaders' well practiced remorseful looks to shame.

"You shall be punished!"

Which is why, when her friends came into the library, they saw Twilight rolling on the library floor laughing, wearing a dunce's cap, while having a tickle fight with her imaginary friend. Rarity was delighted with the outcome and considered her divan's honour to be restored.

Dunce's cap disposed of, Twilight welcomed her friends into her cheery home, which was warmed by the heat of her blush (and a lit fireplace – the nights were getting colder).

In preparation for a filly's night in, Applejack had brought some hard cider, Rarity had brought some very nice wine, Rainbow brought a bottle of vodka and six shot glasses, Pinkie had brought popcorn and Fluttershy had brought her teddy bear.

"I'm going to want to hug somepony when I'm hearing this, so I bought Mr. Teddy," said said shyly, holding him so tight that stuffing and adorableness seemed to be bursting out of the seams in equal quantity.

"It's all right, Sugarcube, we're all friends here. Let's get settled down so that Twilight can get started. Ah've been looking forward to this all day."

“Likewise,” said Midnight with a grin, before settling on a spare cushion, close to Twilight.

The mares fixed their drinks, Pinkie passed out popcorn and everypony settled around the fireplace, letting Twilight describe what happened from the time when she entered Luna's bedchambers through to both of last night's dreams.

By the time she was done, Rarity was looking distinctly envious, Pinkie was still drooling at the thought of the sweet factory, both pegasi had their wings fully extended and Fluttershy's face was nearly the same colour as her mane. Applejack was silent, but there was a lot less cider in her jug than when Twilight started and her face had a healthy ruddy glow.

"Wow!" said Rainbow, summing up everyone's thoughts, "I thought that Luna would know a few tricks, but wow!"

Twilight blushed gracefully.

"Um, Twilight?" said Applejack, "Are you expecting any interesting dreams tonight? 'Cause I'm not sure how well we'll be sleeping with that going on."

"Oh! No no no, well, er, yes. Luna promised that she would stop by, she wanted to know how her plan went, but she promised to keep it clean."

"Twilight, Twilight,” said Pinkie, “Please please please get Luna to send me to the Sweet Factory! The thought of there being a river of chocolate out there and not being able to drink it is making me crazy!"

“So Twilight,” said Rainbow, “What do you have planned for your next meetup? Keeping up with Luna is going to be tough. I'm thinking that you should do something awesome, like jumping out of a cake, with sparklers.”

“Oh, I'm so happy for the both of you,” said Fluttershy, “It sounds like you're both so great for each other.”

Twilight found herself accepting comments and congratulations without actually hearing them; she was having difficulty focusing, as it had been a long day and Rarity's conciliatory wine had been very good. In the end, it was agreed that it was late and they would talk more in the morning.

The six ponies settled on cushions and blankets around the dying fire and one by one, fell asleep.