The Crusaders were full of excitement. They were gathered in thier clubhouse, eagerly discussing thier plans as the early morning sun shone through the window.
"Alright, now! Atten-TION!" Scootaloo shouted.
Her two partners in crusading crime popped up to stand straight and still at the command. Anypony walking in on the three fillies would very likely have burst out laughing.
They were wearing thier Crusader capes, and had battle helmets on thier heads...said helmets having been borrowed from Pinkie Pie the night before. They had also gathered everything together they might need.
"Alright, troops!" Scootaloo went on, pacing back and forth. "Our goal is set. Our mission is clear. We must prank the princesses in such as way as to go down in Equestrian history as the best pranksters ever!" She giggled. "After Pinkie and Dash, anyhow." She sobered again. "Girls, the stakes are high. The risks are great. We might not make it back in one piece. Or alive. Or..."
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, Captain!" Apple Bloom interrupted. "Its risky. But we are so gonna nail this and get our cutie marks!"
Scootaloo frowned disapprovingly at having been cut off in the middle of her well rehearsed motivational speech, but before she could speak, Sweetie Belle piped up.
"I think I just thought of our first problem." She said. Her friends looked at her. "How exactly are we gonna dye Celestia's fur? Not like we can just walk up and dump a big barrel of dye over her."
The other two stared at each other, completely taken aback by this unexpected developement.
"Aw zap apples!" Apple Bloom finally said. "We never thought of that!"
"Nope." Scootaloo added, rubbing her hoof across the back of her head and knocking her helmet over her eyes in the process. She righted it. "Girls. We are down but not out. Not yet. Lets think on this a little bit."
They all sat down to do some hard thinking. How in Equestria could they pull off the fur dye? It was a good plan, but Sweetie Belle was correct: they couldn't just walk up and dump dye over Celestia's head. That would kind of defeat the whole top secret mission thing they had going. They didn't want to be discovered as the culprits until after all the pranks were played.
"What if we hide an' shoot her with it?" Apple Bloom finally asked.
"How?" Scootaloo said, waving her hooves. "We don't have any cannons or anything."
"What if we built a catapult and threw the dye that way?" Sweetie Belle offered.
"Nah, we might hit somepony besides Celestia with it." Scootaloo replied, sighing.
After what seemed like hours, but was actually only about two minutes, Apple Bloom suddenly stood up.
"We need a plan B for her, I guess." She said. "How about super spicy sauce in her drink?"
"Well..." Scootaloo hesitated, then shrugged. "Not exactly epic, but, ok. I guess it's not so bad for a plan B."
With that crisis averted, the fillies set to pulling together thier prank kit. In it went the love potion, a bottle of spicy sauce(why it was in the clubhouse at all is a mystery), and three walkie talkies(again, borrowed from Pinkie Pie).
"We still need an epic prank for Luna!" Sweetie Belle said suddenly, eyes widening.
Scootaloo patted her on her helmet(which for some unexplained reason had had a hole put in it more than large enough for a horn)and smiled.
"Never fear, my fine soldier!" She said confidently. "We'll think of one. But first, lets talk battle plans!"
It was decided that Scootaloo would deal with putting the spicy sauce in Celestia's drink, Sweetie Belle would deal with putting the love potion in a few unfortunate stallions' drinks, and then they would meet up to pull the final prank on Luna...when they figured out what it would be.
Armed with capes, helmets, pranks, and thier assignments, the three Crusaders headed for town to pick thier hiding spots and await the arrival of the princesses.
Things were busy in town. Twilight was organising the festivities, Rarity was busy with Pinkie Pie overseeing decorations, Rainbow Dash was clearing clouds, Fluttershy was organising her bird choir for last minute practice, and Applejack was busily unloading various apple themed desserts onto a long table. Spike was busy following Rarity around with a starry eyed look on his face.
The fillies quickly hid so as to not be spotted and Scootaloo handed out the walkie talkies.
"Remember the plan!" She whispered.
They watched the big ponies finishing up, and then grinned as a horn sounded. The royal chariot descended with Princesses Luna, Celestia, and Cadence in it.
Twilight stepped forward to greet them, with a slightly long speech, and then the three were whisked off to enjoy the festivities set up for them.
It got kind of boring, watching while the princesses walked and talked and oohed over this and that, but at long last they were led to a table set up for thier dining pleasure.
"Maybe we should have thought to get Twilight, too!" Scootaloo whispered to her comrades. "I forget sometimes that she's also a princess."
"Itching powder?" Sweetie Belle asked softly, grinning.
"You have some???" Scootaloo asked in dismay. "Who carries itching powder to...no, never mind. I don't wanna know. Fine. Itching powder. You brought it, you do it!"
The princesses had all taken thier seats(Twilight included), and the meal was about to begin. Pinkie Pie, dressed as a waiter, bounced up and excitedly asked what they wanted to drink. They all chose punch.
"Now!" Scootaloo hissed.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom each grabbed a vial from the prank bag and hurried to do thier tasks. Sweetie Belle was able to spike the drinks of three stallions, unnoticed, while Apple Bloom somehow managed to do the same to Celestia's punch.
Back in the safety of thier hiding spot, they giggled. Scootaloo handed over the itching powder, and Sweetie Belle made a last daring run to carefully sprinkle some on Twilight.
She fled back into hiding immediately. The three fillies watched excitedly.
Three things happened all at once, one expected, and two not.
Twilight started scratching and twisting and yelling about how she was so itchy; Princess Celestia went moony eyed and stared at a group of passing stallions before charging after them with giggles and flirtatious comments; and the three stallions whose drinks had been spiked turned beet red and rushed madly to a nearby fountain, plunging thier heads in and drinking hastily.
"What in the wide world of Equestria is goin' on here?!" Applejack yelled, attempting to lasso the stallion crazed Celestia.
"I don't know, but somepony please MAKE THIS ITCHING STOP!!!!" Twilight ended in a scream.
Celestia's rampage scared Fluttershy's bird choir into flight, ponies scrambled to get out of her path, knocking into stuff and turning it over, and the three stallions at the fountain were nearly drowning themselves in thier effort to cool thier fiery tongues.
Things were going crazy, and stuff was getting smashed and broken. Luna and Cadence, the only princesses not inflicted with some odd malady, just sat and watched in shock.
Twilight was on her back in the dirt, rolling and twisting and going through all kinds of gyrations to scratch the insufferable itch. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash came to her rescue, picking her up and hurriedly taking her and dropping her in the water fountain. Rarity had managed to save the three stallions from an untimely and watery death, and was busy helping them to get glasses of milk to cool them off.
Applejack had finally lassoed Celestia, who grinned at the fleeing stallions and cried,"No! Come back, my loves! Let us get to know each other better! All of us!"
Pinkie Pie was bouncing about trying to catch cupcakes and muffins as they were knocked over, and Fluttershy had hastily gone after her panicked birds.
While all this was going on, the CMC sat motionless behind thier bush, wanting to run but not able to move.
"Oh no..." Sweetie Belle whispered. "We must have mixed up the potion and hot sauce!!"
"Oh man, this is a disaster!" Scootaloo groaned.
"Well, Ah don't reakon it could get worse." Apple Bloom offered helpfully.
And then it did.
Somepony knocked against the outside cookstove being used to grill fresh hayburgers. It fell, hot coals spilled out and landed among a pile of nearby straw. It burst into flame almost instantly.
"Ah take it back! It can get worse!" Apple Bloom whispered.
Unable to bear watching the destruction around them, which they had inadvertantly caused, the Crusaders cowered together and hoped nopony would find them.
That was short lived when a familiar voice called out,"Hey, AJ! Rarity!!! You might want to see this! Over here!" It was Dash...right above them.
The bush was stomped aside with an orange hoof and Applejack exclaimed,"You three!"
"What do you know about this?" Rarity demanded.
The three fillies looked up and found not just thier big sisters, but several townsponies, and all the princesses staring at them sternly.
Well...almost all of them. Celestia was still giggling and trying to solicit attention from every stallion she saw.
The fire had been put out before it got worse, but there was still a scene of utter destruction around them.
"They know alot, apparently." Dash said, having lifted the pack off of Sweetie Belle, looked inside. "Pepper sauce, itching powder, and...what the hay?! Love potion?! No wonder Celestia went stallion crazy!"
"What do ya'll have to say for yourselves?" Applejack demanded sternly.
The Crusaders exchanged looks of dread before Scootaloo opened her mouth and yelled one word:
"RETREAT!!!!!!!!!"
That was all the other two needed as they followed thier formerly fearless captain's order and ran for thier lives.