Twilight Sparkle was in charge of the preparations. Twilight was a super-organized pony. You saw her walking around Ponyville with her little dragon personal assistant and a long checklist of tasks. Twilight wrote a lot of checklists. She ordered scrolls by the ream and had bought so many quills that she could get a new sofa with her customer loyalty points. If there was an important project to manage then Twilight was the pony to do it. She was also Princess Celestia's personal student so she knew lots of important facts such as how the Princess took her tea. Therefore when it was announced that Princess Celestia would be coming to Ponyville for an informal casual visit, the mayor had put Twilight in charge of preparing everything. Twilight had dutifully drawn up a long checklist of all the tasks to be done and had delegated them to the ponies who were available to help. Berry Punch and Golden Harvest were given the task of making a banner to welcome the princess. The day before the princess's visit they had just put it up when Twilight walked by to inspect the preparations.
“What happened to the rest of her name?” she said.
“We couldn't fit it all in.”
“You can't hang a banner that says 'Welcome Princess Celest'. Take it down and try again.”
Twilight Sparkle trotted off without another word.
“She could have said something nice about it,” said Berry Punch. “It was really pretty the way you drew the dot above the i in the shape of a heart, and we put all that work into mixing the paint. Now she wants us to start over.”
“I think she has some sort of disorder,” said Golden Harvest.
But Twilight Sparkle was in charge of the preparations. They had to do what she asked.
They got to the market just as Peachy Pitt, the party supplies vendor, was packing up her stall.
“Sorry girls,” she said. “All out of banners.”
“But we need to redo our banner to welcome Princess Celestia tomorrow,” said Golden Harvest.
“All sold out I'm afraid. Can't explain why. I asked Twilight how many banners we would need, and ordered twice as many rolls as she said—just in case. But for some reason everypony who had to make a banner found they had to make an extra one. It's a mystery.”
She gave her young assistant a puzzled look.
“Ours is not to reason why chief,” he said, shaking his head.
“Tell you what—” she said. “I'll get a new roll in tomorrow. I'll drop it off at your farm first thing then you'll still have time to paint it before the princess arrives.”
As Golden Harvest and Berry Punch walked away from the stall, Pinkie Pie bounced up to take their place, wearing an uncharacteristic frustrated look.
“Quick! I need a harmonica, a trombone, a banjo, an accordion, and some maracas. And a copy of 'Teach yourself to play the harmonica, trombone, banjo, accordion, and maracas in twenty-four hours'.”
Peachy exchanged another look with the young sales assistant.
“Ours is not to reason why,” he said again.
Next day the two friends stood in Golden Harvest's barn in front of a blank sheet of canvas. Berry Punch held a paint brush in her mouth, dipped it in a tin of pink paint, with just a little glitter, and carefully painted the letters. She had nearly finished when she dropped the paintbrush and stomped a hoof with frustration.
“It happened again,” she wailed. “We ran out of space.”
They looked at the banner reading 'Welcome Princess Celesti'.
“It's difficult,” said Golden Harvest. “It's so unfair. Twilight doesn't understand. We have to fit in all those letters, and when you start writing, you don't know exactly where it will end.”
“We've still got some more canvas. Let's try again.”
“Suppose we start writing on the right hoof side?”
“Then we'd run out of space at the left. And we would have to spell it backwards.”
While they were pondering the problem, the barn door burst open and Pinkie Pie burst in.
“Golden Harvest! Berry Punch! Quick—it's an emergency—do you know where I can find a banjo?”
“We're kinda busy right now Pinkie.”
“Me too. And can you help me get a tambourine, cymbals, triangle, tubular bells and a bass drum?”
“Pinkie—”
Pinkie ran up to them, then stood on her hind legs, waving her fore hooves in the air wildly to stress the urgency of the situation. Berry Punch took a step back to avoid a collision with the pink hooves, and put her hind leg into the tin of paint.
“Oh—buck it!”
“That's not a bucket—it's a tin of paint—oh my gosh! That reminds me—I need to find a timpani! Where can I get a timpani?”
Pinkie Pie rushed out of the barn. Golden Harvest wiped the paint off Berry's hoof. A moment later Pinkie dashed back for a final word.
“You know if you write your message before you cut your canvas to size, you can make sure it fits.”
“Oh... Yeah... That makes more sense.”
Half an hour later the two ponies walked towards Ponyville with satisfied smiles on their faces.
“We did it. We did it!” said Berry Punch. “We managed to fit all the words onto one banner. Now we just need to wait for the paint to dry. Let's see how things are going in the town, then we can nip back to collect it just before Princess Celestia arrives.”
Ponyville was looking splendid. Bunches of flowers were tied onto the trees with colored ribbons. Bunting was hanging between buildings. Tables of cakes, pies, and sandwiches were laid out all ready for the royal visit. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue with a few picturesque fluffy clouds. A huge swarm of brightly colored insects descended from the sky. Everypony smiled at the pretty sight—until the parasprites reached the tables of food. As all the pies and cakes disappeared into the clouds of buzzing wings, ponies screamed, cried, and ran into their houses.
“What shall we do?” cried Golden Harvest.
“Twilight will take care of it,” said Berry Punch. “She's in charge. She'll cast a spell or something. We don't need to worry—it's not our responsibility.”
“B-but what if they eat banners?”
They ran back to the farm at full gallop. Once in the barn, they closed the door, bolted it, and piled everything they could find in front of the door.
“Good,” said Golden Harvest looking at the banner lying on the floor, “it's okay.”
“We can't let anything happen to this one,” said Berry. “We won't have time to let the paint dry if we have to do it again.”
“It’s okay,” said Golden Harvest, her heart beating fast. “Twilight will sort out everything in Ponyville. She always has a plan. We just need to keep it safe for the next hour.”
For the following sixty minutes they did not let the banner out of their sight, but sat watching the paint dry like two parents watching a newborn foal. Eventually, on hearing the clock tower bell, Berry Punch cautiously opened the barn door.
“I think it's safe.”
They cantered out of the farm and towards Ponyville proudly carrying their new banner. Outside of the town they ran into Twilight Sparkle, with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy. They were sitting on the ground and looked a little exhausted.
“Twilight. We did it. See!”
The two mares proudly stretched out their banner for everypony to see. Twilight and friends looked at it.
“That's—erm—very nice,” said Rarity. “But I'm afraid the princess has just left. There's been a little—erm—incident.”
“B-but we've been working on it all day,” said Berry. “And we finally got it right. Look—we managed to fit in all the words. What can we do with it now?”
Twilight and friends just looked back at the two crestfallen ponies.
“It's very pretty,” said Fluttershy kindly. “I like the way you drew the dot above the i in the shape of a heart. You can keep it for when the princess next comes to visit.”
Twilight took a more skeptical look.
“Except you spelled 'welcome' with two ls.”
