When Celestia woke up, slowly opening her eyes as she remarked herself that it was about time to raise the sun, she noticed something immediately: there was something over her right eyelid. It applied little pressure for the space it was using and, from the texture, it appeared to be some sort of paper.
Without saying a word, she got off the bed, blinking a few times as she tried to adjust her eyes to the lack of lighting. It was always so dark before dawn...
The sound of something being crushed beneath her hooves reached her ears as she took a step forward. A small 'huh?' escaped her lips when she noticed many other scrolls scattered about on her bedchamber floor.
7, or 8, she counted. Utterly baffled, she lifted them off the ground and left them over the pedestal table, beside a worn-out candle. She would read them later; dawn waits for nopony.
A golden aura engulfed the seal while it tore without a sound, the paper inside expanding in an elliptical motion at the disappearance of resistance.
With an expression of uncertainty, Celestia telekinetically unrolled the first paper of many that sat at a side of a cup of coffee.
"Dearest Princess Luna," she read aloud, rather confused. "Wait a second..."
"What is this...? It looks like it's Spike’s handwriting..."
Another scroll was picked out at random as she took a sip from the cup. What had happened yesterday?
The scroll was extended, and the contents inside of it were something completely different from what she had in mind.
"What is all of this...?" she asked nopony in particular as her eyes passed through the paper before her. Crude, shaky doodles could be discerned: what looked like two quills superimposed over a star and a flame were the only thing present in the message.
"Wait a second, what is this?" she said a third time when she noticed an almost unintelligible phrase in a corner.
"Commission... for..." she could make out, the handwriting itself being impossibly unkempt. She squinted in an attempt to comprehend the nigh gibberish sentence. “Celestia-- me...? ...Spike."
A third scroll found its way towards her, the confusion inside her head becoming rather difficult to contain, together with a new feeling of interest. What was going on here, exactly?
Dearest Princess Celestia,
I profusely apologize about any potential misunderstanding that the incident with the latest letter I sent your way could have brought forth. I wasn't feeling right and I swear it wasn't my fault.
"I don't understand..." was all that she could say as she tried to join the pieces of an unfinished puzzle. The writing style changed from what she could recognize as Twilight's writing back to Spike’s handwriting, that seemed strangely inconsistent.
Do you think I could go to Canterlot, princess? I need to get away from Twilight. She's a little dr
The message ended abruptly, an ink stain plastered over the last word.
Submerged in curiosity, she continued to read the scrolls while constantly sipping coffee. There was something on the entire situation that filled her with an out-of-place feeling of intrigue.
Dearest Princess Cadence,
Argh, not this again!
A long silence invaded the room.
"...Swing and a miss."
You,
Listen, I'm doing my best to write something here, so please oh please don't banish me to a dungeo
The word dungeon became just a downward line.
"Again with the banishment...? What is the matter with my beloved subjects...?"
I mean, uh, I've learned that friends are not better than cider.
…I'll wake Spike up.
The mirror in front of her was assaulted with a high-pressure blast of coffee as her eyes passed over the word 'cider'. Had it been that all along? A towel was hastily brought by her, cleaning the stain almost immediately.
"What does she mean with 'I'll wake Spike up'...?"
My dearest teacher,
I'm about to black out. Send help.
Spike's also out.
"Oh."
The last scroll was deposited in front of her. There was something still out of the picture, though; she had the idea that Twilight had drunk too much cider and had forced to Spike to do so as well, but there was no reason behind that. Maybe... maybe this one explained it all?
Dear Princess Celestia,
I'm writing to you to report my newest find in the magic of boo-- I mean friendship; if you try to force your tastes in other ponies, you might just be in for a surprise when you discover that, indeed, everypony loves cider and you should just keep on forcing everypony to drink
The handwriting was way better than the one present in any of the other scrolls, but the message ended just as suddenly as in the others.
Before she could stand up and continue with her day after a rather strange but amusing awakening, a could of smoke appeared in front of her, finally condensing into another scroll.
"Huh, and what about this...?" she muttered, remarking herself that she was supposed to maintain composure.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today... I've learned that you have to know when it's the moment to stop. I didn't know what the point of no return was when drinking cider yesterday and I swear I couldn't be more regretful. If only I knew how hard it would become to stay rational...
Spike has sent the other letters without me knowing, so my best guess is that you already know what has happened. I'm truly and honestly sorry about all of this. I understand if you're disappointed in me, because so am I.
Your faithful and repenting student,
Twilight Sparkle.
"Seems like you’ve learned a valuable lesson about friendship... well, about how to handle your liquor, actually..." said the princess as she wrote. "I still think that you should stay away from fermented drinks, given that you seem to exhibit little no to tolerance to it."
"...And yes, I expect a report on that, too. You've gone without an assignment for too long: a week and a half. Yes, I know, too long of a time."