Funny / The Equestrian Civil Service Series

• The very opening of Whom the Princesses Would Destroy:
  "Quem reginae volunt perdere, dementant prius." Classical Equestrian proverb, roughly translated: "Whom the princesses would destroy, they first drive mad." Their royal highnesses could not be reached for comment regarding how often this must have occurred for it to warrant its own proverb.
• Dotted Line finds the library tower where Twilight lived in before moving to Ponyville has been covered in four feet of custard, thanks to Princess Luna letting a spell get out of control in a food fight with her sister. When he asks if the inside is filled with custard too, he's assured that it isn't. There's no room on account of the jam.
  • While this is happening, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office Leafy has prised one of the windows open, and is trying to eat some of the jam. He missed breakfast.
• The increasingly Implausible Deniability regarding the number of guards and methods of arrest and restraint for someone who was supposed to be arrested quietly for political reasons. Of course the reason is less funny. Leafy Salad arranged it despite Dotted Line's efforts because the subject had done something unspecified but particularly awful to a foal.
• Twilight Sparkle tests the empathy she has learned from her friends by trying to cheer up Dotted Line. Her final attempt is to say "Tomorrow is another day, right?"
  She paused, quite interested to see how the Cheering Up effect would manifest itself.
  The pony was quiet for a moment, and then lifted his head, gingerly, to regard her with eyes that were twin pools of misery and dread. "Oh, sweet merciful Celestia," he wailed, "not another one!"
• Princess Celestia's... peculiar... sense of humor in room namings has left us with gems like the Disquietingly Green Salon, the Entirely Unnecessary Hall, the Salon of Desperate Yellows, and the Irritatingly Long Gallery. Not to mention that one of them would have been The Hall of Phallic Pillars but for the heroic efforts of a forgotten civil servant.
• One chapter of Obiter Dicta is devoted entirely to Dotted Line explaining the notion of elections to a group of young children. Given the sort of pony that he is it rapidly goes downhill fast.
• We see several excerpts from Press Secretary Spinning Top's day planner. Including the repeated instances of Primal Scream Therapy after checking the daily news.
• For complicated reasons they have to avoid arresting a bank manager for a few days despite his rampant embezzlement, as long as he cooperates. This will almost certainly allow him to flee the country. How do the avoid him being a Karma Houdini? Dropping in to investigate, all the while complimenting him on how cooperative he's being, and singing the Bottles of Beer song until he snaps and punches them. It has to be seen to be believed.

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