Princess Celestia laid stretched out on the pillow in her royal quarters. A cup of mint tea with a plate of cookies sat on the floor beside her. The princess's horn glowed with magic as she held a book up for her to read.

It was a time for her to relax. Her royal duties had been completed. Court had been held, preparatory instructions had been given to the guard, lessons completed, the sun had been lowered and the moon raised to travel along its path. Now, she could relax, enjoy some tea, and continue to read her book.

The story was quite interesting to her as well. Not exactly what would be considered historically accurate, but most would not be aware of that since they were not around at the time. It was a romance set around the time of Equestria's founding. A new recruit in the pegasus army had become infatuated with his commander, constantly staring at her shapely flank and getting in trouble for being distracted. Celestia was very excited: she was just getting to one of the saucier parts where the tension between the two was critical. They might even sleep together, unless something were to interrupt (such as the evil double-agent that was also the commander's second and wanted her for his own).

There was a knock at the door.

Of course, Celestia thought with a sigh. Marking her page, she set the book out of sight (her reading was the business of no other). A quick adjustment of her sitting position, a flick of her head to adjust her mane, and she was ready.

"Enter," she called out before taking a sip of her tea.

It was an action she regretted. Having to fight back a snort of laughter while drinking tea was not something she wanted to experience again.

Entering Celestia's royal chambers was a white coated stallion. The large steel bucket covered his head, hiding his mane. Fortunately, the dress jacket collar, bow tie, dirty blond tail and compass rose cutie mark allowed Celestia to recognize him immediately.

"Blueblood?" she asked in a soft voice. "Why do you have a bucket on your head?"

"With all due respect," he said calmly before nearly shouting, " you must do something about that boorish, uncivilized hooligan of a commoner that you refer to as your student!"

Celestia was not surprised by this claim. It had become quite obvious from an early stage that Prince Blueblood had become the primary target of pranks. A large portion of it was his own attitude, especially how indignant he got whenever he felt humiliated. Although, Celestia did not necessarily have to admit that she was fully aware of these facts.

"So Rainbow dumped a bucket on you?"

"No!' Blueblood snapped before catching himself. "I mean... yes... " He shifted. "But this was only a part of it. The rest was much more humiliating." He turned to face her, (she guessed since she could not actually see his face). "Do you have any idea how horrendous something must be in order to have wearing a bucket be the lesser embarrassment? If the guards saw what I looked like beneath, they would lose all respect for me."

"Now, Blueblood," Celestia said as she stood up. "I doubt that you could possibly lose the respect of the guards."

Seeing as they do not respect you to begin with, she mentally added. Celestia loved her ponies, Blueblood among them, but she was not a fool. She was well aware that the guards were not fond of him. So much so that a portion of them acted as though they were being punished when assigned to Blueblood.

Now that she thought about it, that probably made pranking easier. More than likely, the guards were willing to look the other way while the pranks were being set up, so long as they could play ignorant or innocent. She might have to talk to some of the guards about this possibility later.

"Besides," she continued aloud, "what could be so bad that you feel the need to wear a bucket to keep it hidden?"

Prince Blueblood let out a sigh and adjusted his position. After a several seconds passed, an aura of magic came out from the bottom of the bucket before encompassing it. He lifted it up, revealing his nose, the pale blue eyes and...

Princess Celestia looked away, biting her lip to keep from snorting.

Instead of his normal long, dark blond mane, Prince Blueblood had a large, poofy pink afro. As soon as it was released from the bucket, it puffed out wide and round. It looked like someone had stuck a ten pound ball of cotton candy on his head.

Celestia's horn glowed as she grabbed a scroll and quill. It gave her something to do while collecting herself. She began to writing, looking at the scroll instead of the prince. Keeping her attention on the scroll and feeling she could talk without any more humor than usual in her voice, she spoke.

"How, precisely, was she able to stick that wig onto your head?"

"First," the prince responded, "it isn't a wig. It is my actual mane. Second, I don't know how she managed to do it. I opened the door to my room and had a bucket of water fall on my head. When I took it off, my mane was like this!"

"Interesting," Princess Celestia stated as she finished her letter. "Very well, Blueblood. I shall take care of this."

"Wonderful!" Blueblood proclaimed. "I recommend a full year in the dungeon, with water every other week and bread crust once a month. We shall get a full retinue of guards that I shall personally lead to search the castle for that-"

"That will not be necessary," Princess Celestia interrupted. "You go on back to your room. I will handle the matter with as much subtlety as possible." Rolling up the scroll she held it a moment before having it disappear in a puff of flame.

"What?" Blueblood's eyes went wide for a second. Unfortunately, he also lost his concentration, causing the bucket to drop back down and covering his head once again. "But-but-but..." He stopped as he felt a hoof against his shoulder.

"Think of it this way," Celestia said in her calm tone, "were you to lead a retinue for the search, you would either have to do so wearing the bucket, or allowing the guards to see your mane."

Prince Blueblood opened his mouth, held it that way a moment, and finally closed it. He let out a slight hum as he rubbed his chin, considering it.

"Very well," he replied. "I shall trust the matter into your capable and wise hooves." He turned around. "I shall be in my quarters should you need my assistance with that... hooligan. Hopefully my mane shall be back to normal shortly."

Celestia rolled her eyes but said nothing. She walked with Blueblood to the door, pulling it open for him and stepping out in the hall with him. The princess watched as the bucket-headed stallion headed down the hall, watching until he turned a corner. She then turned to one of her guards.

"When Rainbow Burst and Spike arrive," she stated, "please allow them into my quarters immediately."

"Yes, Princess," he stated with a salute.

Princess Celestia smiled, gave a slight nod, and turned to step back into her quarters.

"Princess...?"

The guard made the princess stop, turning to look at him again.

"Permission to speak freely?" he asked.

"Granted."

The guard took a deep breath and shifted to look more toward the princess than straight ahead.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation," he said. "Couldn't... couldn't you have simply used your own magic to return Prince Blub-errrrr... Blueblood's mane back to normal?"

Was he about to say Prince Blubberbutt? she wondered to herself.

"Use my magic to turn his mane back?" she asked instead, bringing up a hoof to touch her chin as though considering it.

"Yes," she finally replied. "I suppose I could have." She continued her way to back into her room. "How unfortunate that the possibility never came up."

Princess Celestia shut the door behind. A smile crossed her face, but otherwise, she chose to ignore the laughter coming from the hallway.