"Mares and gentlecolts, we has a problem," Velvet Wings announced to the bat ponies that had gathered in the mess hall for "breakfast." "We has not pranked anyponys in weeks, and our reputatation is being lost. We mustn't let zat happens!"

"Do we need to continue with these jokes, Velvet?" Midnght Blossom asked. She was a no nonsense mare with a lot of attitude. She saw no point in the other bats' jokes.

"Of course we do!" he shouted. Murmurs of assent spread around the room.

"Look, last time you did something, we all had a pay cut of fifteen percent. You pranked a civilian."

"But Princess Celestia gave us an increase of double zat afterwards for ze good performance. Plus, we like Princess Twilight and her friends, and ze civilian wanted to evict one of ze Princess's friends."

"I am wasting my breath," Midnight grumbled. "Continue if you so wish. Let's see who's laughing when we find out who gets the Lunar Guard of the Year promotion." She waltzed out of the mess hall.

Those last words silenced the room and gave many of the guards a severe wake-up call.

Each year, not long before Hearth's Warming Day, an awards ceremony was held for all of the castle staff. Not just the guards and servants, but also the royal advisors, the event planners and a whole host of other ponies. It was three months away, but still, the Solar and Lunar Guards of the Year received a very shiny plaque and a lot of bits. To win one of these awards was a huge honour, but Midnight was always a candidate for it, and winning against her was almost impossible.

"Rights. We has a bigger problem: making sure zat somebat other than Midnight Blossom is ze Lunar Guard of ze Year."

"How?" a bat mare asked. "She never does any pranks, unlike us."

"I has two ideas. One is to frame her and claim that she has played lots of jokes. Ze second is to," he gulped, "scale ze pranks down a bit."

Gasps and angry muttering were spread through the mess hall.

"I have an idea," Echo said over the noise. Everypony fell silent again. "It's a small scale joke, but it will work well and we can keep it going for ages."

"Explain," Velvet Wings ordered her.

"Can anypony here remember being afraid of stepping on cracks in the floor as a foal, because they thought they would fall through?" she asked aloud. She grinned menacingly, enhancing her look by showing off two inches of fang.

Almost everypony held a front hoof in the air.

"I have an idea that involves several metres of cellotape and all of the guards who have the sunset shift in the throne room. Who's on the first night shift with me?"

Most ponies put their hooves down, but about ten didn't.

"Ok. The plan is to stick a line of tape on the throne room floor while the Princesses are sorting out the sun and moon, and make sure that [i]nopony steps on it."

Echo finished laying the line of cellotape across the throne room floor. "There we are," she sighed happily.

"How is zis a mastermind prank?" Velvet Wings dubiously asked.

"We can see this at any time of the day or night, but ordinary ponies can't spot it. What us bats must do is avoid stepping on this cellotape, and convince other ponies not to. Now, let's get to our posts because the moon has almost risen completely. Princess Luna will be here soon."

They walked to their posts and stood on either side of the barely visible line of tape. It was so thick that a foal would have to jump to cross it, and an adult pony would have difficulty in stepping over it. They decided that they would not bother older ponies (excluding alicorns) about it.

Princess Luna entered the throne room and crossed the room. When she reached the line, Echo squealed, "Don't step there!" as if a viper was hidden under the carpet.

"Dear Echo, what is wrong?" Princess Luna asked, concern in her voice.

"There's a crack in the floor," she whispered.

"Pardon?"

"There's a crack in the floor. If you step on it, you will fall through!"

Luna furrowed her brow in concentration. "You say that there is a crack in the floor of this throne room large enough for a pony to fall through?!"

"It's not really a crack... It is a hole that stretches across the room, from one wall to the other. It opens here at night, and closes at dawn. I noticed it yesterday. It leads to a white room, just like they say Limbo is supposed to look."

"Hmm, I shall have to have somepony look at it in the morning." She flew over the "gap," then walked over to her throne. Her horn's blue aura filled the room for a moment before a glowing blue rope materialised on either side of the line of tape.

There were two visitors in evening court that night. One of them was Filthy Rich again, hoping to file a complaint against two businessmen who had apparently sold him a fake jewel. Since his concerns were actually valid this time, Princess Luna said that she would be in contact with the two brothers. The other visitor was there to book an appointment to see Princess Celestia, since he claimed he was unable to see her earlier in the day. All in all, nothing much happened, although their perplexed reactions to the roped off area provided some entertainment to the bat ponies.

The next morning, Princess Celestia came into the throne room before sunrise at her sister's request to investigate the "crack" in the throne room floor. She stepped across a section of rope and onto the floor. When she had all four hooves on the marked area of ground, she examined the floor closer with the light of her horn. She only just noticed the glint ot the tape.

"Do not fret, Luna, it was the bat ponies again, cooking up their silly jokes," she explained. "This one was actually minor, even though it meant I had to get out of bed an hour early. To be fair, though, I was having trouble sleeping anyway."

"Do you need me to help out with the first court session whilst you sleep, sister?" Luna asked.

"There is no need; a strong brew of tea shall be fine. As long as those bats don't add ghost peppers to it."

A few bat ponies in the room sniggered.

"You bat ponies and your jokes," she sighed as she and Luna left the room to raise the sun. As if being a ruler of Equestria could not be any harder.

Author's Note

Credits and apologies to cucharrador, who told me this idea. I totally forgot there, with so many prank and OC requests in my notifications and private messages.

Which leads me to my next point: if I use your idea and forget to credit you, give me a reminder and I'll fix it right away. It seems that this story is attracting a lot of attention and I might not be able to use everyone's ideas and OCs due to high demand.

Writing this brought back a few memories. I remember when I was little, I was scared to step on cracks in the pavement in case I fell through. I'm sure I'm not the only one.