EQ:PP Night of the Living Cookies

The next morning, at the bungalow, Nigel invited the poor saps who were victims of Dashie’s pranks over to see how to stop and deal with this problem once and for all.

“She placed my little sister’s uniform for the Cookie Drive onto the cake then made a sewing machine made out of cake where she tricked me into sewing using the cake machine.” Rarity complained.

“She pulled my bed out into the Elasmotherium pen even after Bob and I went through all of that trouble to ensure she couldn’t prank me even after my increased security,” Applejack complained as she sniffed her hair. “And my clothes and hair still stinks of mud and rhino logs.”

“Wow!” Twilight expressed in stunned amazement. “How did she even pull all of that even when you all kept your guard up?”

“I don’t know!” Applejack answered. “But now it’s time we taught Rainbow Dash a lesson because now she is taking this here pranking business too far!”

“Well, where’s Sunset? Did Rainbow get her too?” Bob wondered.

“She left to stay in Equestria for a while until this whole thing blows over. Said that she didn’t want to get involved.” Suzanne told the headkeeper.

“So what are you thinking?” Nigel wondered what revenge they had in mind.

“I was thinking we’d invite Rainbow Dash over to apologize to her but as she comes inside, we dump a bucket of rainbow paint all over her!” Rarity proposed.

“Don’t you think you're exaggerating, Rarity?” Pinkie questioned. "She's been pranking up a storm!"

"Did she get you, too?" Fluttershy asked. Pinkie laughed.

"Oh, yeah!" said Pinkie cheerfully, "She and Gummy both!"

Flashback

Just earlier that morning, Pinkie had gone to get something from her closet. When she opened the door, she found Rainbow and Gummy hanging upside down by their legs, or in Gummy’s case, his tail, inside.

"Boo!" Rainbow shouted.

"AAAAAAAAH!" Pinkie screamed and then giggled to herself.

End of Flashback

"They got me good," said Pinkie in a cool tone.

"Well, she needs to stop," Applejack snapped.

"Stop?" said Pinkie, "But pranks are so much fun!"

"Not for everybody, Pinkie," Nigel said sternly.

"And it doesn't seem like Dash is taking the time to find out who enjoys them and who doesn't," Twilight added sternly. The others all grumbled in agreement.

"Yeah." Bob agreed. "Plus, we don't like being in the dark on whether Dash is going to get us or not. Some of us need stability in our lives, you know?"

"Uh, since you and Dash share such an, uh, affinity for pranking," Rarity approached Pinkie and said, "we thought you might be able to get her to, um, uh... quit it!"

Pinkie took a glance at her friends’ faces and began to scratch the back of her head nervously. For once, she seemed to feel what all of them had been feeling about the plague of pranks that was uncertain to end. "Are you sure they're not funny?" She asked.

"No!" Everyone shouted in unison.

Pinkie sighed heavily and walked past them. "Alright, I'll go talk to her."

"Thank you." Rarity returned.

Once Pinkie seemed to reluctantly leave the premises, the rest looked at each other with the question of what they should do next.

"Should we wait for her to come back?" Fluttershy asked. "I really want to know what Rainbow Dash says. To be honest, I don't think Pinkie asking Rainbow to stop will get her to stop. You all know how Rainbow is."

"You're right." Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. "If Pinkie can just get to her stop then and there, that would be great. But if she refuses, then we'll just have to improvise. If she won't stop, then we'll need to make her stop. Give her a taste of her own medicine."

"What? You mean like prank her?" Nigel inquired. "But she's been pranking for ages now. I would think she knows all the tricks in the book."

"Just because you're an expert prankster doesn't mean you're exempted from basic psychology," Twilight responded wittily, causing them to look at her with confusion. "It's like this. If everybody you know was to start behaving in a certain way, your mind is sort of trained to follow that unnatural pattern. Let me make things a little clearer and use an example." She walked over to the box of cupcakes Pinkie delivered to Nigel and opened them up. "You're concerned that Rainbow Dash would become suspicious of any possible prank that is planned against her, right? Well, if you ordered a box of strawberry cupcakes, and all the cupcakes were strawberry except for one that was blueberry, you'd immediately think something was wrong, right?"

"Yeah…?" Bob returned, not quite understanding what she was getting at yet.

"Now, look at it this way: If all the cupcakes were blueberry, and one was strawberry, you'd likely begin questioning yourself about what kind of cupcakes you ordered. You'd probably start to think that you ordered blueberry cupcakes instead of strawberry, and that chance is even further increased if all the cupcakes were blueberry."

"…But isn't that why you have the receipt?" Nigel brought up.

"Forget the receipt!" Twilight shook her head. "I'm just using these cupcakes as an example. What I'm trying to say is that if one person was trying to convince you that something was a certain way you didn't remember it being, you'd be unlikely to believe, if everyone was trying to convince you, you're more likely to believe their story. Get what I'm saying?"

"Okay, the way you're explaining all this is kind of confusing, but I think what you're trying to say is that we should get everybody in on the prank. That way, it'd be harder for Rainbow Dash to figure out it's just a prank?" Nigel asked.

"Well, leaving out the psychology explanation and aspect of it, yeah, I guess you could say that," Twilight concluded.

"But, what's a convincing prank we can pull with everyone in Prehistoric Park?" Rarity asked.

As the gang placed some thought into answering that question, Pinkie Pie returned a short moment later with a rainbow-colored mouth and a box of cookies she continued to consume. Rarity immediately noticed this and pointed it out.

"Aren't those the cookies from the Filly Guide? How on Earth did you get a hold of them? They aren't supposed to be sold until tomorrow."

"Oh, these?" Pinkie continued chewing as she looked at the box on her hoof. "They're joke cookies Rainbow Dash is going to switch the Filly Guide cookies with. She thinks pranking everybody at once is the most hilarious thing ever, soo… it turns out I couldn't get her to stop." She frowned sadly, which was followed by another cookie being plopped into her mouth.

"You're telling me she's getting into my barn?!" Applejack yelled out. "That's where I'm keepin' the cookies until tomorrow!" Applejack now hopped out of her seat and began to storm out the front door. "Oh, I'm going to tell that dumb girl to think twice about switching those cookies or she'll be getting a mouthful of—"

"Wait!" Twilight suddenly stopped, causing Applejack to freeze at the door. "This isn't so bad actually!"

"What are you gettin' on about, Twilight?" Applejack turned, the aggravated frustration in her tensed face still burning strong.

"I'm saying that we can use this against her!" Twilight suggested. "She doesn't know that we know about her prank. We can make it backfire on her!"

"And how would we do that?" Suzanne questioned.

"Oh, I might have a few ideas…" Nigel rubbed his chin and looked back in thought mischievously.

The next day was the Filly Guide Cookie Drive. Rainbow quickly made her way inside Sugarcube Corner.

"Pinkie, what's the deal?" Rainbow called out as she headed inside, "I told you I needed your help switching out all the Filly Guide Scout cookies for the joke cookies. But when you didn't show, I had to do it all by myself!"

Rainbow then headed upstairs and saw that Pinkie was still in bed. Her coat was a sickly shade of pink and her mouth was completely rainbow-colored.

"Uh, Pinkie?" Rainbow asked as Pinkie coughed in reply. Rainbow chuckled as she walked up to the bed, "Wow, your face is still pretty rainbowed."

"Yeah," said Pinkie weakly, "I haven't really...*Cough*...been feeling well. And these joke cookies are the only thing that makes me feel better."

Pinkie then reached for another cookie but found her box was empty.

"You don't have anymore, do you?!" Pinkie asked as she lunged into Rainbow's face in desperation.

"Uh, no," Rainbow asked, feeling rather disturbed, and pushed Pinkie back, "I just told you. I used them all for the prank."

"Oh," said Pinkie, looking disappointed.

"Pretty soon, the CMCs will start selling them to everyone in Prehistoric Park," Rainbow gloated as she walked away from Pinkie's bed, "Ponies will open up their boxes and start eating, then all of their teeth will turn rainbow-colored, and they'll know it was me! It's gonna be so awesome! C'mon, you don't wanna miss it!"

Rainbow didn't resist hugging the ice cream stair post before she went over to Pinkie and pulled her blanket.

"Actually," Pinkie coughed, "I don't think I can even...stand up..." Pinkie then lunged into Rainbow's face.

"UNLESS YOU'VE GOT MORE COOKIES!" Pinkie said in a raspy voice.

"Aah!" Rainbow yelped, "On second thought, maybe you better stay here and rest."

"Yeah," Pinkie sighed as she turned away, "You're right. Sorry to miss out. I'm sure it's gonna be hilarious and Nigel won't fire you for it."

Rainbow just looked worried, but it was more over Pinkie's condition rather than Nigel possibly retaliating to fire her.

At Sweet Apple Acres, All three Cutie Mark Crusaders wore their Filly Guide Cookie Drive uniforms while Applejack, Bob, Rarity, and even Rainbow Dash gathered and put all of the cookies on the cart. Everything is set for selling the cookies.

Rainbow Dash smiled as she turned to the CMC, "All right, who's ready to sell some cookies?"

Three Cutie Mark Crusaders cried, "Me!"

"Look here, Rainbow Dash. I know you promised Scootaloo you'd help out," Bob said dryly while glaring at Rainbow Dash, "but I don't want none of your pranks ruinin' these lasses' night."

"I agree. And you don't want to upset Nigel." Rarity added, "You know how angry he can be."

"Look, I'll be with you the whole night so you can totally keep an eye on me." Rainbow Dash insisted.

"Come on, Applejack! Let's get started!" Apple Bloom insisted.

Scootaloo nodded, "Yeah! We've got a lot of ground to cover!"

"We wanna get everybody in Prehistoric Park!" Sweetie Belle added happily.

Bob chuckled, "The cookies won't sell to customers by themselves. Let's make the best out of it!”

As three Cutie Mark Crusaders carried the wagon of cookies, they headed off at once.

Rainbow Dash smiled as she turned to both Rarity and Applejack, "Come on! You heard her! Everybody in Prehistoric Park!"

As suspicious and concerned as Rarity, Bob, and Applejack are for their prankster friend, they have to agree with her that they have to help Cutie Mark Crusaders in selling the cookies. As the two sisters and head-keeper headed off, Rainbow Dash laughed softly while following them.