The three friends sat around the table, their heads hung and their visages grim. They had been sitting for hours, and had made no progress at all.
Spike spoke up. “What if we tied her guards’ wings together? Then when they try to take off with her chariot, they’ll just tangle up in a heap!”
Dash shook her head. “Did that in April. What if we gave her a cake for a gift, but baked a bunch of red-hot peppers into it?”
Now it was Pinkie’s turn to shoot down the idea. “She always brings an official taste-tester with her, ever since that ‘yellow punch’ thing. What if we hit her in the head with a frying pan, and then she forgot who she was, and then we had to hide her from the guards while we tried to help her get her memory back, but she kept wandering off to have hilarious misadventures with the townsfolk?”
Spike facepalmed. “Okay, first of all that’s not new OR original, it’s the plot of that movie we all watched last night. Second, I’m pretty sure concussions don’t work that way. Third, even if they did, any prank that involves physically assaulting the Princess is a very, very bad idea. Right Dash?”
Dash didn’t respond. She was busy looking at her hooves, wondering what the equine equivalent of a facepalm was. Facehoof? Nah, that just sounded silly. The three of them lapsed into silence again, each struggling to think of an original, funny, and preferably non-lethal prank to play on Celestia when she visited tomorrow.
Suddenly, all three simultaneously exclaimed, “I’VE GOT IT!”
*****
The next day, a very angry-looking Princess Celestia returned to her court in Canterlot rather later than expected. Her crown was askew, her mane disheveled, and her entire body covered in what looked and smelled for all the world like butterscotch. Courtiers and nobles scurried out of her way, fearful that they might become the target of her wrath. She stalked up to her royal trip adviser. The old pony quailed, but managed to squeak out, “So, erm, how was, ah, Ponyville?”
She glared at him. “From now on, send my body double to all Ponyville functions instead of me. I am never going back again.”
The adviser looked confused. “But my Princess, you don’t have a body double! Who else could pos—”
“THEN FIND ONE!” she screamed, and with that she stomped into her room, slamming the door behind her.