Six months later

It was the last day of serving out their sentence, and they were eagerly awaiting the end of the day when they would be off their punishment. They had a new profound respect for the maids and the smiths who were in charge of cleaning the armor and weapons.

As they were away finishing up the last of the laundry, Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn were setting their plan into motion. By the end of the day Haldir, Rúmil, and Orophin would never play a prank as long as they lived.

Lord Celeborn had ordered a maid to draw three baths for the brothers, and as she was busy drawing the bath, he poured a potion into each shampoo bottle that would dye each of their hair. As he was mixing the last of the potion in the shampoo, he couldn't help but laugh. "Let this be a lesson to not mess with Lord Celeborn the wisest of all elves." After he had finished, he turned and smiled at his handiwork and left.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Lady Galadriel was fixing the wardens a meal: Vegetable soup with lembas bread and for dessert her famous lemon meringue pie. She was now mixing in the soup a very strong laxative which would keep all three of them in the bathrooms for much of the night. "Turn my beautiful hair green, will you? I will make sure you never mess with me again!"

She had just set the dinner down when her husband came in. "My part is finished how is your end coming along?" he asked while placing a gentle kiss on her brow.

"I'm done. The laxative will take a good hour to work which should be about the time they are almost done bathing."

Just then she heard the wardens coming up the stairs to the dining room and entered the talan. "My lady. My lord," they all said while bowing. "You called for us?"

"Yes, and thank you for coming quickly," Celeborn answered. "We knew you guys had been working very hard and without any complaints so as a way to reward you for your hard work we wanted to fix you your favorite meal." He pointed to the table with the food sitting.

The three looked a little nervous and were not sure whether to trust the food. "Will you be joining us?" Rúmil asked hoping he didn't sound too worried.

Seeming to detect their suspicion, Galadriel laughed softly. "Don't worry. Everything is fine. As to prove everything was fine she took a sip of the soup closest to her. "Please sit. Let there be no hard feelings. We think you have learned your lesson this time."

Haldir, Rumil, and Orophin sighed and still slightly nervous took their seats while Galadriel and her husband sat at their places. No one said much as they all began to eat. Finally, Rúmil had complimented Galadriel on her food. "This is excellent soup, my lady. You always seem to know how to cook flawlessly."

Lady Galadriel smiled and thanked Rúmil, then spoke to her husband. "Everything is going as planned, my love. Within the next hour or so they will be running to the bathrooms not knowing what hit them."

Celeborn just laughed silently in his mind and continued eating his meal.

Forty minutes later the wardens reached their talans and climbed into their baths. Unaware of what Celeborn had done they started to wash and then they used the shampoo to wash their hair.

As they finished rinsing their hair, Rumil began to groan. "Haldir, Orophin, I don't feel so well." Holding his stomach, he began to moan even louder.

Haldir and Orophin also started to feel unwell as their stomachs began to gurgle. "Neither do I," Haldir replied while holding his stomach.

Orophin had just begun to say something when he suddenly jumped out of the bath and without covering up he fled out of the talan towards the bathrooms followed closely by Rúmil then Haldir.

All eyes were on the three wardens, some covering their eyes, some had dropped what they were doing, while others were laughing and pointing as they were racing naked to the bathrooms. But none of the elves had more pleasure and satisfaction watching the wardens than Sogrion who was up in his favorite tree trying not to fall while holding his sides in a fit of laughter. None of the brothers had noticed their hair had been colored bright pink as they were too busy trying not to relieve themselves in public.

By the time they had made it to the bathrooms – and not a second too soon – word had begun to spread about three naked pink haired elves racing through Lórien to the bathrooms.

Hours later three exhausted, humiliated wardens emerged from the bathrooms and made their way back to their talan miraculously without being seen. Without speaking, they all dressed and were making their way back to bed when Haldir spotted himself in a mirror. Gasping in horror, he shouted out, "Sweet Valar, my hair!"

Rúmil and Orophin rushed to see what Haldir was screaming about when they stopped and saw his bright pink hair. It was at this time the other two had noticed their hair as well.

They all looked at one another now realizing what had just happened: they the master pranksters had been pranked. All they could do was get into bed and pray they could show their faces in public.

Back in their beds laughing were Galadriel and Celeborn. They had heard Haldir scream in horror and knew they had discovered they had been pranked.

"My dear, I think we no longer have to worry about any more pranks from our dear wardens," a very amused Celeborn said to his wife.

"No indeed. I think they have finally learned a very valuable lesson: that if you prank, be prepared to be pranked back."

They both smiled triumphantly and fell asleep in one another's arms.

Indeed, three very upset and now humble Marchwardens' had learned their lesson.