"Alright, class!” Cheerilee tapped a hoof on her desk to bring the class to attention. Or at least more attention than they usually paid, which wasn't much. It didn't quite work. She sighed and waited for a lull in the end-of-day chatter. At the first sound of relative quietness, she cleared her throat. “Before you go home today, I have a special announcement to make!”

“A field trip!?” Apple Bloom's eyes lit up.

“To Canterlot!?” Sweetie Belle's expression was much the same as Apple Bloom's.

“To make up for th—” Scootaloo tried to round out the CMC trio, but her voice was drowned out by Twist's.

“To make up for the one that got methed up latht time?”

Scootaloo glared at her red-maned classmate. She was in the process of coming up with a witty retort when Diamond Tiara butted in.

“Oh, the trip that was messed up because somepony—” Her eyes darted in the Cutie Mark Crusaders' direction for a moment. “—freed that dragony thing by fighting in front of the statue?”

“For the zillionth time, that wasn't our fault!” Apple Bloom shouted. “I asked my sister and she asked Twilight and she said that Twilight said that Princess Celestia said that he got out because the spell that Princess Celestia used to seal him wore off because she didn't have the Elements of Harmony because my sister and her friends got the elements because they used them when Nightmare Moon kidnapped Princess Celestia.”

“I'm not sure what you just said...” It was Silver Spoon's turn to throw in her two bits. “...not like it matters. We all know whose fault it was.”

“But it wasn't our fault!” Scootaloo said, glaring at Silver Spoon with an intensity that came dangerously close to melting her head. “Besides, it doesn't matter that the last trip got ruined if we get to go again!”

“So are we going back to Canterlot, Ms. Cheerilee!?” Sweetie Belle asked, putting on her best set of puppy dog eyes.

“I'm afraid not,” the teacher answered. A sad sigh arose from the class as their collective morale deflated. “But I do have something fun for you to do!”

“What is it?” Apple Bloom asked, doing her best to sound interested. It wasn't a convincing performance.

Cheerilee clapped her hooves together. “You're all going to put on a play!”

“A play?” the class answered with one disappointed and slightly confused voice.

“Yes! What you experienced on our last trip to Canterlot was a major event in Equestria's history. Most ponies never get to experience something so important.”

“I thought that all of Equestria got turned all weird...” Scootaloo muttered.

“Some of you even personally know the ponies who defeated Discord!” Cheerilee continued. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both shot momentarily smug looks at the rest of the class. “Because all of you were so close to this historic event, I want you to recreate it on stage. And since you need to learn how to get along with each other—” She glared at Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom, who were preoccupied with an impromptu contest to see who could make the more grotesque face at the other. She cleared her throat, and the two fillies immediately turned to face her with wide, fake smiles on their faces. “—I want you to organize it yourselves.

"You'll do everything yourselves; the scripts, the costumes, the props, the whole thing! When you get everything together, you can perform your play for the town. I'm sure Twilight and her friends would just love to see what you can come up with. If you—” The sound of the school bell cut her off. “Oh, it seems like we're out of time for today. Tomorrow I'll let you have the class period to discuss what you want to do. Your homework is to do research for the play. Especially those of you who know the ponies who were actually a part of it. See you all tomorrow!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders all but sprinted out of the schoolhouse. As usual, they made a beeline towards their clubhouse. Unusually, they did so with the intent of getting right to work on their homework.

“Well, it’s no trip to Canterlot, but I guess a play is alright,” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah, this is gonna be fun.” Scootaloo pounded the ground especially hard as she galloped along. “I’m totally going to be Rainbow Dash! It’ll be awesome! I’ll spend like half the play just kicking Discord’s behind!”

Sweetie Belle gave her friend a sideways glance. “I don’t think that’s quite how the story goes.”

“I don’t think Miss Cheerilee will mind if do a bit— what’s that called again?”

“Artistic license,” Apple Bloom offered.

“Right, that! It’s not like we’d be able to do that whole rainbow beam thing on stage anyway.”

Sweetie Belle nodded in assent. “Yeah, we’re going to have to change a few things.”

“Okay, let's get started!” Diamond Tiara pounded her hoof on her desk to get the attention of her classmates, who sat around her in a ring of desks. “First, we should decide which pony is going to play which part. I put a list together of who would be best in each role.”

She shoved the stack of papers to Silver Spoon, who began to distribute them as Diamond Tiara began to read from it.

“The part of Princess Celestia will be played by me, obviously. The part of Twilight Sparkle will be played by—”

“Wait a minute, how come you get to be the Princess?” Apple Bloom interrupted.

“Oh come on, it's obvious, isn't it?” Diamond Tiara stood on her chair and nodded her head at her flank. “Diamond Tiara. You know, the fancy thing that the Princess wears? Why wouldn't I be the princess?”

“Why am I playing a rock!?” Scootaloo tossed the paper off of her desk with extreme prejudice. “This is dumb. We should agree on who plays who together.”

“Yeah, why couldn't I play the princess?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I look more like her than you do! We have the almost the same coat color, and I'm a unicorn.” She grinned smugly and tapped her horn.

“Well you don't get to decide which pony plays who, either!” Silver Spoon stomped her hooves on her desk. "If you pick everything you'd just make Diamond Tiara play like, Discord's rump or something! That's not fair!"

“Fine!” Scootaloo answered with her own even louder hoof-stomping, “We'll just throw everypony's name in a basket and pick which pony gets to play Celestia that way!”

“Fine!” Diamond Tiara snatched up the wastebasket and dumped out the contents (mostly crumpled papers and a few candy wrappers) next to her desk. “Toss in the names.”

“With pleasure!” Apple Bloom snorted. She scribbled the names onto a piece of loose leaf notebook paper, tore it apart, and dumped the pile of scraps into the wastebin. "There. Everypony's name is in there. Whoever gets drawn gets to be the princess."

“Great. Then let's do this!” Diamond Tiara thrust her head towards the basket to pluck out one of the papers but was stopped by a pair of hooves planting themselves on the top of her head. She looked up to see Scootaloo preventing her from drawing. “Exactly what do you think you're doing?”

“You can't draw yet!" the orange pegasus said. "We haven't mixed up the papers!”

“Okay then, we'll shake the basket.” Diamond Tiara spoke through gritted teeth as she gave the basket a solid shake. “There. I hope you're happy.” Once again she attempted to draw a slip of paper, and once again she found herself prevented, this time by Apple Bloom. “What is it this time?”

“How come you get to draw the name?” she asked. “Why can't I draw it?”

“Well, somepony has to do it,” Silver Spoon said in a huff, “Why does it matter if you get to draw it?”

“But the drawing has to be fair!” Sweetie Belle snatched the basket out of Diamond Tiara's hooves. “If you draw it, you'll try to draw yourself.”

“Well, you certainly can't draw then. You'll try to draw yourself too!” Diamond Tiara snatched the basket back, only for Scootaloo to grab it.

“We should draw names to see who gets to draw it!” she said. "It's the only way to be fair."

“But which pony gets to draw that name?” Apple Bloom rubbed her head with a hoof. “Maybe we should get Ms. Cheerilee to do it.”

“We'll just get somepony who doesn't want to play Princess Celestia to draw it!” Silver Spoon grumbled. "If you guys keep this up we're never going to draw anything."

“Like who?” Scootaloo dropped the basket onto her desk with a clank.

“Uh...” Diamond Tiara surveyed the classroom for a pony that wouldn't drag out the argument any longer. “Dinky, you don't care who gets to be the Princess, do you?”

“Huh?” The pale purple unicorn raised her head, surprised to be brought into the conversation. “No, not really. I'd rather be a regular pony.”

“Well, draw a name out of here so we can see who plays the Princess.” Diamond Tiara kicked the basket in Dinky's direction.

“Okay!” Dinky bounced out of her seat and shoved her whole head into the basket, rustling around with gusto. “Got one!” Her voice was muffled both by the wastebasket and by the paper in her mouth. As she lifted her head, the basket came with it. Dinky moved her head as if she could somehow see through the basket, looking at her classmates. “It's stuck.”

“Oh, for the love of Luna...” There was a thud as Diamond Tiara dropped her head to her desk. “Can somepony get that thing off of her?”

“I got it!” Scootaloo grabbed the basket and gave a solid yank. Dinky stumbled forward, sending both ponies crashing into the desks.

“You can't do it like that! Somepony has to hold onto her!” Apple Bloom grabbed one of Dinky's hind legs. “Try it again.”

Scootaloo pulled on the basket. Dinky's entire body stretched out for a moment before the bucket came off with pop and a shower of papers. Scootaloo rolled backward and crashed into the desks that she had knocked over a moment earlier. Dinky just smiled, showing the scrap of paper clenched between her teeth.

“Well, who is it?” Sweetie Belle asked, trying to hide her excitement at a chance at being the Princess.

Dinky meandered slowly back to her desk, dropping the paper onto it. As she noted the name on the paper, she broke into a wide smile.

“Don't tell me you drew your own name!” Silver Spoon shoved her out of the way and glared at the paper. Her eyes nearly fell out of her head as she saw the name. “Y-you cannot be serious..."

“Will you just tell us who it ith?” Twist cocked her head over her classmates, more out of curiosity than any desire to see her name.

"Let me see it.” Apple Bloom shoved her way to the paper. “The part of Princess Celestia will be played by....” She looked at the paper. Her eye immediately began to twitch. “...Snails.”

Every jaw in the room dropped, the exceptions being Dinky, who was apparently unfazed, and Snips and Snails, who were busy not paying attention to the proceedings, preoccupied with seeing which one of them could fit more apple slices into their mouths. Then they realized that the rest of their class was staring at them in horror.

Snails swallowed his mouthful and lethargically looked around the room.

“Uh, guys? What's goin' on?”