Twilight Sparkle slowly walked up the stairs to her bedroom, Spike clinging to her back. After finishing their viewing of the 'what if' machine, the princesses had insisted on taking the 'slumber party' to the main floor. There she sat, awed and disenchanted as her two rulers played board games, built pillow forts, and ate all the food in her icebox; all while giggling like schoolfillies. Finally, after what felt like hours, the two settled down to sleep on the library's largest couches.
The purple scholar yawned deeply as she opened the door to her room. Spike grumbled, “You never let me jump on the furniture.”
“You're not my teacher and/or a princess of Equestria.” Twilight responded as she levitated her assistant to his basket, the baby dragon was snoring before he hit the pillow.
The unicorn was more than eager to join her friend in slumber. She turned to get into her own bed, then stopped in her tracks.
Celestia lounged in Twilight's bed, reading a purple bound notebook floating lazily in front of her. As if noticing the unicorn for the first time, the princess looked up and said, “It's very clever of you to write your diary in the Elder Fetlok runic alphabet. That's an excellent way to keep your secrets from curious eyes.”
Twilight's only response was to stare at her teacher, her mouth nearly reaching the floor.
When it became apparent that no vocalizations were coming, Celestia continued, “Though what's really impressive is that you've written the whole thing in Old Horse. I haven't used that since we studied the sagas of Northern Equestria when you were a filly.”
Recovering from her catatonia enough to panic, Twilight leaped into the air and snatched the book from her mentor's grip. Dashing over to the sleeping Spike, she roughly poked his belly causing a jet of flame to consume her diary. The unicorn let out a sigh of relief as her innermost thoughts vanished in a puff of smoke. She then gasped in terror as the smoke cloud flew straight toward Celestia, and rematerialized into an unscathed notebook.
Cursing dragon fire and magical parchment, Twilight snatched up the book again and stuffed it in her bedside drawer. Celestia watched this whole display with amusement and more than a little regret, both for invading her student's privacy, and for not getting to any of the good parts.
After forcing herself to calm down the little pony managed to ask, “Princess! What are you doing up here? I just saw you and Luna downstairs sleeping.”
The solar mare flashed her student a smile before answering, “To be perfectly honest Twilight, Luna snores like a manticore with a sinus infection. I think it has something to do with her being the hippomorphic personification of the night and all that it relates to. Unfortunately this means I can never fall asleep in the same room as her, so I decided to bunk with you tonight.”
As if to corroborate her story a thunderous roar resonated from the lower part of the library. And it did indeed sound exactly like a manticore with a sinus infection (something Twilight had the misfortune of knowing about after helping Fluttershy at her cottage one day).
Twilight wanted to argue. In fact she wanted to do a lot of things, including but not limited to: screaming, blaspheming, and regicide. But she was just too tired. Yawning once again, the purple unicorn climbed into bed next to her teacher.
“Goodnight Celestia.”
“Goodnight Twilight.”
“Goodnight Twilight! Goodnight Princess!” A voice said from Twilight's other side.
“Pinkie Pie.” Twilight said without opening her eyes, struggling to keep her voice even. “You're in my house again.”
“Yeah.”
“And you're in bed with me and the princess.”
“Uh-Huh.”
“Why?”
“I dunno, it just seemed like something I would do.”
Sensing that her student was about to lose her already strained grasp of sanity, Celestia interrupted. “Pinkie dear?”
“Yeah princess?”
“Luna is sleeping all alone downstairs. Don't you think it would be nice if you went down there to keep her company?”
The earth pony's eyes lit up and a grin stretched across her cheeks. “That's a great idea!”
In a single motion the pink mare was out of bed and hopping through the door. Celestia chuckled at the pony's antics before turning to Twilight to say, “There, I think that solves that problem quite nicely.”
But her comment fell on deaf ears. Twilight was fast asleep, and she'd be damned if anything woke her before 2 p.m.