Princess Celestia was confused and a bit annoyed seeing how Twilight was trying to overly impress her with how Starlight was coming along with her friendship lessons. She couldn't help but be a bit concerned seeing that she left her here with Cranky, an old grumpy mule with a blonde wig, a gray-coated pegasus with lopsided eyes, who she had seen many times before. Still, her name escaped her, and a white-coated unicorn mare wearing red-tinted sunglasses bobbed her head up and down as she listened to something she believed to be Vinyl Scratch? The princess remembered hiring her before for several parties, including the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. From the looks of things, she could obviously tell that none of these ponies knew Starlight seeing how confused they were, so it was obvious that Twilight was lying to her. Regardless she might try to get to know these other ponies. But before she could say anything, Cranky looked at her oddly, then blurted out, "How do you get your mane to do that?"
Celestia rolled her eyes and sighed; this wasn't the first time she was asked this question, and it probably won't be the last. "Well, it's complicated; I must constantly use magic to keep it waving."
"But why?"
The princess couldn't help but let out a chuckle and explained, "To be honest, it keeps my mane out of my face."
Cranky started to look flustered as he began to mess with his wig, "Well, if you wouldn't mind, maybe uh…using your fancy magic to give me a set of hair?"
The princess tapped a hoof to her chin, pondering the thought, then said, "Seeing my former student Twilight is probably handling some friendship issue or saving Ponyville. I'll see what I can do."
The mare lit the end of her horn, and Cranky's bald head sprouted long locks of wavy light rainbow-colored hair flowing on its own. Celestia was somewhat surprised to see it looked a lot like her own.
"Give me a mirror. I want to see it!"
Celestia used her horn and floated a hand mirror towards Cranky, who looked at his reflection and then gasped, seeing his long mane fluttering about looking exactly the solar princess' own set of hair and cried, "This is incredible! Can I keep it like this!"
The princess' cheeks flushed red seeing he did look good with her hair, and said, "Uh, sure, if you want?"
She approached the dopey-looking pegasus pony and asked, "I apologize; what was your name again?"
"It's, uh, Derpy Princess Celestia."
"It's nice to meet you Derpy, and just call me Celestia this evening. I don't like being so formal all the time."
Her stomach growled, and she sighed, "Now I think we are all starving, and I still have no idea where Twilight went, so why don't I make us some dinner?"
Cranky grumbled under his breath and nodded while Vinyl just kept bobbing her head. Celestia wondered if she was paying attention. Derpy then blinked with a dumbfounded look and said, "You don't have to; I can make us something."
"I insist I won't let you all starve while we wait." Celestia went to the kitchen and made a casserole with fresh green beans slathered in butter. She then brought it out along with some wine, as she had a rather long day and needed to get a little drunk. She started to serve her guests, who all dug in.
Derpy beamed a smile and started flapping her wings, "This is so delicious than you, Pr- I mean Celestia."
"It's my pleasure Derpy."
Vinyl raised a hoof of approval as Cranky mumbled something about needing more salt, and she gave his food a light sprinkle.
The white-coated mare lowered her headphones and asked, "So, Princess Celestia."
"Tonight, just call me Celestia."
Vinyl shrugged, then said, "Oh, ok, Celestia, I've been meaning to ask what's your favorite music?"
The princess paused, tapping a hoof on her chin. "That's a good question. I think my favorite music is soft Jazz, especially when having coffee at one of the cafes near the castle."
Vinyl nodded, jotting something down. "Ok, Octavia was asking since she wanted to play something for your birthday."
"Oh, that sounds lovely; please give her my thanks. Octavia is one of the best cellists in Equestria."
"Yeah, I know also just hit me up for your next party!"
"Of course I will,"
Derpy looked up with a sheepish smile and asked, "So, uh, Celestia, I heard you like cake?"
When asked the question, the princess was drinking a glass of wine which squirted out some of it from her nose as she politely laughed, "Like cake?" she then wiped her muzzle with a napkin and chimed, "I loooove cake!"
Derpy flapped her wings, excited as she replied, "Oh? Do you like muffins too?"
"Of course I do; I just like cake more."
Derpy bowed her head and whispered, "Well, I like muffins more."
"Muffins are good, especially blueberry muffins. But cake is so much richer and flavorful."
"But muffins are crumbly and fluffy cakes are sometimes too heavy."
"But you just can't capture the flavor."
"I think cake is overrated."
"Well, I think muffins are much messier to eat."
"But you can share muffins a lot more than cake."
"But no pony gets muffins for a birthday party or a wedding?"
"But you can have muffins at any time! Cakes are like a one-time thing."
The princess then let out a laugh and replied with a smirk. "It seems that we are at a standoff!"
The pegasus tilted her head oddly and asked, "It seems so?"
The two got up, and both went to baking, and it was only a short time until they both returned from the kitchen. Celestia had a massive two-layer vanilla cake, while Derpy had a basket of muffins. "Cranky, Vinyl, would you mind being our test subjects?"
Cranky shrugged, taking a slice of cake and a muffin, and Vinyl did the same; they both took a bite of each, giving each bite time to chew and then swallow.
The mule munched away on the cake and shrugged as he mumbled, "I have to say the cake is good but too rich for my taste buds."
Vinyl munching on her muffin, shrugged, "I'm digging the cake more than the muffins."
The princess smirked as she said, "I guess we remain at a standstill."
Derpy started to look depressed as she said, "It's ok, princess, you don't have to like muffins."
The princess let out a gasp seeing she was giving the impression she hated muffins, then held a hoof and said. "Wait, hold on? I didn't say I disliked muffins; I just said I like cake more than muffins."
The gray-coated pegasus sighed, "Oh, sorry, forgot you did say that earlier."
Celestia let out another laugh. "We got so worked up over nothing; why don't we relax…in fact, this castle would be a great place to host a party."
Vinyl got rather excited and exclaimed, "Oh yeah! We can hold a banger of a party here!"
Maybe it was the drink getting to her, but Celestia couldn't help but think that Vinyl had a good idea and mumbled to herself. "I have nothing else planned this evening but what about Twilight?"
"What about Twilight?"
They turned to see Spike entering the dining room and drinking a cup of cocoa.
Celestia was happy to see the young dragon and said, "Good Evening, Spike. Do you happen to know where Twilight is?"
Spike burped a scroll and said, "Yeah, she told me that Trixie and Starlight are going to some girl's night? Guess she forgot about the whole dinner thing."
One of Celestia's eyes started to twitch, feeling a bit annoyed and frustrated, seeing she had cleared her whole evening schedule to make time for this dinner, then to have Twilight not only lie to her but forget about it!? If steam could pour out of her ears it would but she resumed her royal composure, and said, "Well, Spike, you think she would mind if we hosted a party?"
The baby dragon crossed his claws, flashed the princess a smirk, and said, "As long as she doesn't find out."
A few hours later
The entire main hall of the castle was transformed into a massive party. Vinyl had her whole setup with her DJ booth and blasting music from massive subwoofers. Pinkie Pie was bouncing around, shooting her party, creating a never ending rain of confetti. Ponies all over were dancing and having a good time with a crowd surrounding Cranky and the princess who were dancing together. The mule was dancing about waving his long mane all over with the princess realizing this was the happiest she's seen him since his wedding. She herself stumbled about on her hooves seeing she's lost her sense of balance and made a mental note to stop drinking. Amid their dancing, Derpy flew over and asked, "Hey Celestia, wanna have a pastry-eating competition?"
The solar princess perked up, and she must be feeling really drunk, and laughed, "Of course! That sounds like fun!" The plastered princess clumsily followed the pegasus to a table set up with Pinkie Pie bouncing over and shouting, "Come one! Come all! To see the princess and Derpy showdown!"
The two then sat across from each other, with Celestia having a massive stack of cupcakes on her side of the table while Derpy had a mass of muffins on her end.
Pinkie bounced over and chimed, "The competition is simple; the first to eat the most pastries wins! On your marks!
Celestia eyed Derpy as they both readied themselves. "You ready, Derpy?"
"You know it, Celestia! Gonna eat you under the table!"
"Get set!
"Oh, you have no idea how hungry I am."
"Go!"
Celestia started to shovel cupcakes into her mouth and watched as Derpy did the same with the muffins. They continued their competition, with Celestia going hard, trying to keep up. Still, Derpy just grinned as she stuffed her face with muffins. This continued until Celestia started to feel sick, her belly ached, and her mouth hurt from chewing so much. As the competition dragged on Celestia found it harder and harder to keep up with the pastries feeling like a weight in her stomach and it didn’t help she was drunk. The two were soon down to finishing the last cupcake and muffin seeing both had bloated bellies and looking sick; the princess of the sun looked up to see Derpy struggling to munch on the muffin in her hooves, but they both were pushing to see who could eat more and she looked up to see Pinkie had a scoreboard with herself having eaten ninety nine cupcakes and Derpy had ninety nine muffins. But as the princess stuffed her face with one last cupcake and munched away, Derpy took one last bite of the muffin in her hooves then went cross-eyed and collapsed in her chair. The princess was astounded at what happened as Pinkie Pie bounced over and cheered, "Princess Celestia won! Congrats!”
This got a round of cheers from the crowd and soon the entire galley was echoed by clopping hooves. The princess felt proud of herself but still felt awfully sick with all the pastries and the alcohol not mixing well. Then she heard the front door burst open, and she went pale looking behind her to see Twilight and two other mares standing in the doorway with their mouths agape. Celestia gulped down whatever pastry mush was still in her mouth and as she hobbled over and stammered, "Uh, Twilight wasn't expecting you back so soon!?"
The volet alicorn turned to the princess with a glare and shouted, "What in the hay are you doing!? And why are you throwing a party in my castle!?"
The princess looked all over, seeing the disco ball, Vinyl's subwoofers blasting dubstep, Cranky still dancing upright with his forelegs crossed over his chest and him kicking back and forth with his back legs drawing a crowd of ponies chanting “go Cranky! Go Cranky!” Then seeing Derpy collapsed on a bed of crushed muffins looking as if she just found heaven. The princess was realizing how silly and insane this all looked. But as she was about to say something she heard Cranky shouting, "Look out!"
She turned around to see Cranky tripping on his long mane and slamming into the table with a mountain of pastries heading right for her! She got in front of Twilight and threw her up her hooves, and the last thing she saw was a mountain of muffins and cake slamming into her face!
Princess Celestia groaned as she woke up the following day and, despite being hungover, felt a headache. She slowly crawled out of bed and as she stumbled to a mirror seeing her mane was a frazled mess. It took a few minutes to fix herself brushing it out and sending macmgic into it to make it wave on its own. The mare then looked to see a clock and sighed with relief, seeing it was five AM giving her about an hour to raise the sun. But as she got up from the bedroom and saw how plain it was, she assumed Twilight had her placed in a guest room. She then continued through the maze of hallways, getting lost due to being unfamiliar with Twilight's castle. The princess eventually found the kitchen where she spotted a tired and grumpy looking Twilight whose mane was also a frazzled mess. Celestia was feeling emberassed for her actions last night as she lowered her head and slowly trotted into the kitchen Twilight eyed her and grumbled, "Morning princess."
"Good morning, Twilight," Celestia replied rather sheepishly, still embarrassed about how she acted last night. She slowly crossed the kitchen, grabbed a cup of coffee, and sipped from a mug slowly.
Twilight let out an agitated sigh as she finally spoke up. "Princess Celestia I get that you were mad that I ditched you and you got bored, but you seriously threw a party without me!?"
"Yes…it sort of happened, and I must admit I was a little drunk…"
Twilight groaned then shouted, “I'm not mad you threw a party at my castle! I'm just mad you didn’t invite me!”
“That’s understandable, and regardless I am ashamed of my actions last night,” Celestia mumbled, feeling like a child being scolded by a parent, nodding as she looked rather distraught. She took her cup of coffee and continued to sip it, but then Twilight came over now looking apologetic and said, "but this was partly my fault, I…I forgot about our dinner when Trixie and Starlight wanted to make up for last night. Not only that I lied to you about Starlight making friends with those other ponies as I was trying to impress you on how much progress she was making."
The princess just shook her head with a smirk seeing she knew her former student was lying before and said, "Twilight, I know."
"You did?"
Celestia then chuckled to herself, and added. "Twilight, I'm sorry to say this, but you are a terrible liar."
Twilight was now looking sheepishly and stammered, "I…I know…"
"And did Starlight make a friend? I saw you with her and another pony?"
Twilight paused, and she was now looking nervous as she stammered, "Yes… she's um, uh, friends with Trixie."
Celestia took a sip of coffee then, somehow, her memory was jogged to the point where she remembered the show pony using an alicorn amulet to enslave the ponies of Ponyville! She then spat out her coffee and cried, "Wait!? Wasn't that the pony who tried to take over Ponyville!!?"
Twilight held up a hoof with a cloth as she wiped coffee from her face and explained, "Yes, I know she wouldn't be my first choice, but Trixie seems to have changed, and because I wasn't giving her a chance and wasn't trusting Starlight to make her own decisions, it led to Trixie launching herself into the mouth of a manticore."
Celestia once again spat out her coffee and cried, "is she ok!?"
Twilight grumbked irritably as she wiped coffee from her face again. "Yes she's fine. Starlight saved her before anything happened."
"Well, thats a relief." Celestia set her cup of coffee down and added, "So it seems you three had fun last night?"
Twilight smirked and said, "Well you could say we had our own girls' night, but I did not expect you to have a party!? How was that?"
The princess beamed a smile remembering all the fun she had last night and exclaimed, "It was fantastic! Except for the ending where I ended up under a pile of pastries I don’t think it could've been better.” She then calmed down and reminisced a little, savoring the fun she had dancing with Cranky, seeing Vinyl enjoying herself blasting dubstep and the pastry eating competition with Derpy. The princess then suddenly realized she just made three friends and it’s been quite some time since she really just enjoyed herself with another pony’s company and added, “I did indeed have a lot of fun; you helped me make new friends last night without even realizing it.”
Twilight beamed a smile of pride at the princess and placed a hoof over her chest as she proclaimed, “Well I am the princess of friendship afterall!”
This got a laugh out of Twilight and Celestia the solar princess placed her mug down and hugged her former student. "I still apologize for my party. Next time I'll be sure to invite you."
Twilight gave a playful smirk and snapped, "You better! Or I'll banish you to the sun for a thousand years!"
The princess couldn't help but let out a playful chuckle and added, "Good luck with that and speaking of the sun I think its about time I raise it."
The two then heard Cranky groaning as he trotted down, dragging his long wavy mane and mumbling how hard it is to keep it looking good; he was followed by Vinyl and Derpy.
Celestia watched as the three went to have breakfast together. Twilight nudged the princess, "Why don't you have breakfast with your new friends first?"
"Ok…" The princess' cheeks flushed red as she trotted over and gave them a smile; they waved over as she sat down, and Twilight couldn't help but beam a smile of pride as she trotted off to provide them some privacy. It didn't take long for Celestia to start giving tips to Cranky about the upkeep his new mane will need. Then she got into a debate over who won the competition with Derpy and laughed a lot about how they found her unconscious under a pile of cupcakes. Then Vinyl chimed in on how she plans to join in with Octavia to do a performance for her birthday. It was such a lovely conversation, and the princess of the sun had to admit it's been a while since she had such amazing friends to talk to. Then she blinked as another realization came to her. Does this mean that she's the student and has Twilight become her teacher?