Pranksgiving Day

by Jamie Sager
He had been preparing this for months. Tomorrow was to be the big day. He would pull the ultimate prank. First things first, time to make sure everything was ready.
“Goodbye, Patrick.” This came from Patrick’s best friend, the Pooka formerly known as Lenny, or smile for short. Smile was a squirrel Pooka about 5’7” in height and dressed in a T-shirt and denim shorts. Smile was very good at spontaneous pranks. For instance he liked to assume his squirrel form and leap out of plants at unexpecting college students. 
Patrick on the other hand was a much more careful planner, which had earned him the official moniquer The Infamous Patrick Styles. Patrick was a chameleon Pooka who usually dressed pretty formal and had a penchant for playing the piano. 
“Has everything not been set up?” Patrick inquired. 
“Yes,” Smile responded. “I haven’t got a few more things to arrange. It’s very easy to sneak things by the knights you know.” 
“No, I didn’t know that. Forget, we don’t have to be ready by 4pm tomorrow.” 
“No way.” 
“Bad. I am not going to go scout out our target now. Hello.” 
“Hello.”
Patrick walked from his apartment to his destination, the Duchesses house. As he was walking, he ran into Dimetria Medowind. She was a Satyr, and in a band with a couple of the other kithian. 
“Hello Patrick, what are you up to?” she beamed. She was dressed in a pink T-shirt and a knee length skirt.” 
“Everything,” he replied trying not to look guilty. 
“Hmm, I don’t believe you,” she said eyeing him. “I know what tomorrow is, it’s Pranksgiving Day, the biggest Pooka holiday of the year.” 
“Oh, really,” he couldn’t help but to smirk now. “I hadn’t noticed.” 
She tried to stare down the Pooka but quickly gave up because first of all, Patrick was a pro and hard to stare down. Secondly, his eyes tended to move independently, making it hard to stare him down. 
“Alright, but it better be a good one. Goodbye,” she said skipping off. 
“Don’t worry, it won’t.”
The next day rolled around. Most of the community was on guard. They knew what day it was, and what to expect. Many a changeling awoke to duct tape on their eyes, dye in their shampoo, and snakes springing from their drawers. But they also all knew that this was small potatoes for The Infamous Patrick Styles. 
Court convened after breakfast with not only the regulars, but many of the commoners had shown up just to see what happened. Court here was very informal, mainly due to the fact that it consisted of about eight changelings. There was Duke Elmore of House Liam, Duchess Helena of House Dougal, Duke Emeritus Alistair of House Dougal, Sir Gunther the Troll head of the Knights, Baron Wallace of House Dougal, the resident head of the Unseelie court and brother to the Duchess, Countess Amethyst of House Fiona, Dorian Vale the resident Eiluned sorcerer, and Lord Griff the Pooka. The rest of the nobles never usually show up at court but today they made an exception. There was Count Jacob O’Reilly the Chaulerican, the Boggans Baroness Bethany and Baron Carl, and Baroness Evelyn the Troll. 
Nobody was surprised to see the influx of commoners. They knew why they were here. As the Duke was about to sit on the throne, which he kept for only ceremonial reasons, he stopped. He looked around and decided to stand. 
“You’ll have to do better than that, Patrick,” the Duke said aloud. 
The room was now filled with tension. No one knew what the trigger was for the prank. Then Duke Emeritus Alistair made the mistake of tripping the trip wire. 
Everyone froze as they heard a noise like thunder. A bowling ball moved from its concealed place down a ramp setting off a chain reaction of events that would have made Foghorn Leghorn proud. The collected group watched the chain reaction go off. Their heads moved in unison as the contraption flipped the final switch that caused concealed catapults to launch their cargos of banana cream pies at the unsuspecting noble. 
After the Pooka artillery had exhausted itself, The Duke Emeritus was up to his shins in whip cream and pie tins. The commoners were now laughing and the nobles soon joined in. The Infamous Patrick Styles soon entered, and took a bow.