> The Ketchup Prank
>  by SmegAndTheHeads
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Ketchup Prank
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Ketchup Prank


Note: A short story this time, as I have something bigger planned, but this is just to tide you over. I hope you like it, comments and criticism are appreciated as always.

Today was a day like any other. Ponyville’s Market had opened for the day, and lots of ponies were outside, enjoying the fine array of goods and services available. Fruit and vegetables were laid out in fine arrangements at the stalls. Some stalls had their products on shelves, and some had displayed them in a large bundle, as to attract customers. The Marketplace was Ponyville’s main attraction that day, and for two ponies, was the perfect place to pull a few pranks.
Behind a clothing stall, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash poked their heads from the side of the stall, as to get a good look of the marketplace.

Pinkie asked, “Ready, Rainbow Dash?”
“Ready when you are, Pinkie.” She replied with a laugh.
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash snuck behind a fruit stall, small brown bags clutched in their mouths, and looked at a shelf stacked with a large display of fruit.

Rainbow Dash looked at the stall owner, who was busy with a customer. “You got the screwdriver in there?” She asked as she put the bag down.
Pinkie looked in the bag and pulled out a screwdriver, with a large red handle. She passed it to Rainbow, who sneakily loosened the screws on the shelves. Pinkie kept watch of the stall owner, who was still talking to the customer.
Rainbow Dash put down the screwdriver and sighed. “Okay, it’s done.” She said with a hint of giddiness in her voice.

Pinkie giggled and pulled out a metal magnet. She aimed the magnet at the stall and the screws flew out of their respective holes, and attached to the magnet. The shelf unit rocked and fell apart into a large heap. The fruit spilled out into the street, and the stall owner looked in shock as his shelf fell apart.

Pinkie and Rainbow ran quickly, holding the bags and hid behind a tree. When they were out of sight, the two erupted into a fit of laughter. Rainbow landed on her back and laughed loudly. “Oh god, that was SO rich!”
Pinkie looked up at Rainbow, “Tell me about it, did you see the owner’s face?”
“I sure did! That was awesome!”
Pinkie and Rainbow’s laughter slowly died down and Rainbow asked, “So, what do you want to do now?”

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin and looked behind the tree. She looked around and saw Spike, carrying a large stack of boxes, full of blueberry pies.
She smiled and made a small giggle, “I think we have just found our next victim.”

Spike walked through the streets and carried the stack of 6 pie boxes through the streets, making sure not to bump into anypony. He sighed as he walked through Ponyville, not noticing that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had sneaked up behind him.
Rainbow Dash sneaked up behind Spike and sniggered, as her plan came into fruition. She took in a loud breath and shouted, “SPIKE!!”
Spike screamed, jumped a few feet into the air and the pies scattered, all landing on the shocked dragon, covering him in blueberry filling. He opened his eyes after the pies had subsided, and heard loud laughter from Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. He sighed as he faced the two, seeing the duo trying not to laugh as Spike’s less than happy looks.

He simply asked, “Why, just why?”
Pinkie replied, “That’s the fun of it, Spikey, we were only joking!
Spike wiped off some of the filling and said, “But Twilight needed those pies.”
Rainbow smiled and added, “Well, she may appreciate a blueberry flavoured Dragon.”
Spike sighed and said nothing, walking off in a bit of a huff.

Spike opened the door to the library and shut it behind him. Twilight was busy rearranging some books on the shelf. She turned and said, “Hi Spike, how are—“
She saw the blueberry covered blob that was Spike, “Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash get to you?”
Spike let out a large sigh, “How did you know?”
Twilight replied, “Well, it’s not usual to see a blueberry covered Dragon walk into the library, is it?”
Spike wiped off some more filling and said, “Well, I must say it was a good joke, but you needed those pies.”
Twilight replied, “No need, Spike. Pinkie came round earlier with a whole batch.”
Spike stared at the boxes laid upon the table, and rubbed his temples with his fingers, “So, I did all that, for nothing.”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Twilight handed Spike a large towel.

As Spike wiped himself down with the towel, he asked, “Twilight, what’s the best way to exact revenge?”
Twilight giggled and walked towards Spike, “I don’t know. What do you have in mind?” she asked with a hint of confusion in her voice.
Spike cleaned himself off and threw the towel into a wash basket, “Well, I was wondering if I was to prank Pinkie and Rainbow, but how would I do it?”
“Well, if you were to prank the two best pranksters in Ponyville, I’d best not bother.” Twilight said with a sigh.
Spike wondered around the room, looking for ways to exact revenge. “It’s got to be unexpected. Something they’d never expect, like a loud noise, an action, or...”

Spike opened a drawer and found a small sachet of tomato ketchup and some sticky tape, and said mischievously, “Or, a fake injury...”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “A fake injury? How would you do that?”
Spike pulled out the items and held them up in front of Twilight. “Right, this trick involves you, me, and these two items. Here’s how it works...”
Their planning went underway, and after much rehearsal, they had finally gotten their prank ready. Now, they needed to wait.

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

About a few hours later, Spike had positioned himself near the marketplace, leaning against the wall of a small house, his head hovering over the wall, minding not to burst the sachet, which he had tied to his head.
He saw Pinkie and Rainbow laughing in the distance, and looked away, trying not to be spotted looking at the two. Pinkie and Rainbow laughed behind another tree and both of the girls were clutching each other, laughing like mad. 

“You should’ve seen how angry that guy got, that spray-paint really worked!” said Rainbow Dash, still laughing like mad.
Pinkie leant up and wiped her eyes, “I know, it was so funny, luckily it’s washable, I hope.”
Rainbow stood up on all fours and looked around, “Right, who’s next on our list?”
Pinkie saw Spike standing near a building and said, “I know we’ve already played a prank on Spike, but he’s such an easy target. Look at him.”
She pointed at Spike, to which Rainbow Dash saw and giggled, “Oh, this is too rich.” She nodded at each other and sneaked behind the building.

Spike waited for the two to show up, and then...
“Hi, Spike!!”
The two sprang up in front of him and he jumped back, hitting the back of his head on the house. He heard a bang, and felt the ketchup run down the back of his head.
Spike thought to himself, “It worked! Alright, Spike, show time.”

As the two laughed, Spike moaned in grief. Rainbow and Pinkie were still laughing at Spike, but Pinkie asked, “Heh, you alright?”
Spike placed a hand on the back of his head, and said, “Oh, my head...”
Pinkie and Rainbow’s laughter started dying down, starting to show a bit of concern.
Spike saw his hand, ketchup was on his hand, and he said in shock, “Oh god, I’m bleeding!”
Pinkie and Rainbow’s laughter died instantly, staring worryingly at the Dragon, their faces turned shocked. The sachet on the back of Spike’s head slid behind him into a small bushel of grass, out of sight of the two ponies. He sat down, pretending dizziness and pain. “It hurts... it hurts so much...”

As Spike managed to muster up some tears, Pinkie gasped and said, “Oh no, you’re hurt!”
Rainbow’s face suddenly went pale and she started shaking. “Spike, we’re so sorry! We didn’t know you were going to get hurt!”
Spike feigned some more crying, still clutching the back of his head. “It hurts, why did you do this to me? Was one joke not enough?!”
Rainbow gasped turned to Pinkie and said, “What are we going to do? We can’t leave Spike like this!”
Pinkie replied, “Well, you could go get Twilight.”
Rainbow grabbed the pink pony and asked, “Are you nuts?! What’s Twilight going to say when she finds out we’ve injured Spike?”
Pinkie panicked and started to think for an answer. “Just go and get her, it’s the only thing we can do. I’ll take care of Spike.”
Rainbow paused, nodded slowly and ran towards the library. Pinkie sat beside Spike and wrapped her hooves around him, trying to calm him down. “It’ll be okay, Spike. You’ll be fine; Rainbow’s just gone to go get Twilight. She’ll know what to do.”
Spike sniffled and said, “Okay. Thank you for looking after me.”
Pinkie pulled in Spike closer and rocked him gently. “That’s okay, Spikey. I’m always here to help you.”
As Spike faked his pain, he smiled mischievously and thought, “Hook, line, and sinker.”

Twilight saw Rainbow Dash heading towards the library, and she got into position. “Alright, just keep it cool, and keep it convincing. Three, two, one...”

Rainbow Dash burst into the library, her face white with shock, panting heavily.
Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash, “Rainbow, what’s wrong? It looks like you’ve seen a ghost!”
Rainbow gasped for breath, thinking about how Twilight would react. “It’s Spike, something’s happened to him.”
Twilight feigned shock and asked, “What do you mean, is he hurt?!”
Rainbow looked at Twilight and said, “He has, and it’s pretty bad as well!”
Twilight jumped back and shouted, “Badly? Where is he?!”
Rainbow stammered some more, trying to find her words, “He’s east of the library, follow me!”

The girls ran out the library, and ran towards Spike and Pinkie, who were sitting beside the house. They both stopped in front of them.
Twilight looked at Spike and asked, “What happened, is Spike alright?!”
Pinkie looked up at Twilight, and turned pale at the sight of Twilight’s utter shock. 
She managed to gather up some words, and said, “Uh... Spike was standing up here, and we thought it would be a good idea to scare him for a joke. He hit his head on the wall here, and the next thing we know, he was bleeding.”
Twilight looked behind Spike, and saw the ketchup had obviously exploded, and made a hoof sized splat on the back of his head. Now she just had to play innocent.

Twilight gasped and said, “Oh sweet Celestia!!”
Spike turned to Twilight, the fake tears obviously putting on a show, “Twilight, is that you?”
Twilight managed some fake tears of her own, and grabbed Spike, embracing him. She looked at the girls and said, “What on Celestia’s good green Equestria were you thinking?!”
Rainbow started to shiver some more, “We-we’re so sorry, it was an accident!”
Pinkie became increasing worried, tears were welling up, and she said, “We didn’t know this would happen, please, please don’t hate us for it...”

The plan had gone off without a hitch, Pinkie and Rainbow were now visibly upset and scared by this, and Spike and Twilight had been in top form. Now was the time to drop the bombshell.

Spike tapped Twilight’s shoulder, acknowledging that they had won. Spike started to laugh, and so did Twilight. Pinkie and Rainbow suddenly became confused, staring at each other before looking back at Spike and Twilight. The two burst into laughter, which gathered some strange looks from Pinkie and Rainbow.

Rainbow asked, “Could you two tell us what’s going on?”
Spike stood up and said, “I think I can. This isn’t blood.”
Pinkie gasped, “It isn’t? Then what is it?”
Twilight smirked and stifled a laugh, “Show them, Spike...”

Spike walked towards the wall and reach into the grass. He picked up the sachet of ketchup and said, “That’s because this isn’t blood, it was ketchup!”
Pinkie and Rainbow stared in shock at the sachet, now knowing they were tricked. Twilight and Spike burst into laughter again, leaning on each other, trying to contain their laughter.
Twilight looked at the two, “You should’ve seen the looks on your faces!”
Spike replied, “I know, priceless!”

Pinkie and Rainbow stared at each other again, realising the events of what just happened. They had been tricked into thinking Spike was injured, and they got worked up about it, descending into pure fear. They then realised that the prank was actually pretty good, and they started to laugh themselves.
Pinkie giggled and looked at the laughing couple, “You know, that was kinda funny.”
Rainbow looked at Pinkie, “Yeah, I’d never been so scared before in my life. You two got us pretty good, however Pinkie’s reaction was amazing.”
“What do you mean, silly? Your face when the ketchup showed was hilarious! It looked like a faucet had drained the colour from your face!”
“You were no different; you looked like you were going to burst into tears!”

The two realised how funny their reactions were, and burst into laughter, collapsing onto the ground. Twilight and Spike laughed harder, and also fell to the ground. The four lay on the grass and laughed for a while, trying to catch their breaths. After a short moment, the group’s laughter receded, and they got up.

Rainbow gasped and said, “So, whose idea was this anyway?”
Twilight smiled and placed a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “Well, I only played along, but it was Spike who came up with the idea.”
Pinkie hugged Spike and said, “Did you hear that? Little Spikey-Wikey’s a prankster, just like us!”
Rainbow smiled and hovered over the two, “Yeah, Spike, you were awesome. How would like to go pranking with us tomorrow?”
Spike smiled and said, “Sure, I’d be more than happy to go.”
Rainbow turned to Twilight, “Hey Twi, you wanna join us?”
Twilight giggled and said, “No thanks, I don’t think pranking is my style.”
Pinkie let go of Spike and said, “Come on, you two, I’ll show you a few things I’ve got planned for tomorrow.”
The three walked off, with Twilight watching them. She smiled as she walked back into the library, not saying another word.


The End


Author’s Note: Welp, that’s that one done, hope you liked it! Any comments and criticism are appreciated.