"Are you ready for tonight?"
"Am I ever!" Luna exclaimed, giving Cadance a playful punch on her shoulder. "This is going to be a blast!"
"I don't believe Canterlot is ready for us," Cadance chuckled. "Especially you. You've gotta use that epic voice of yours."
"Attention, peasants!" Luna announced boisterously, in a quieter version of her Royal Canterlot Voice that managed to turn a few heads in the diner all the same. "Your Princess of the Night and her niece require more cider! Provide it or face their wrath!"
Cadance snickered. "Yep. That's the one."
Celestia frowned pensively at their antics, but kept her focus on her paperwork. "You two sound like you've got quite the evening planned. Just stay out of trouble."
"Yes, mother," Luna trilled. "Seriously though, why aren't you coming, too, Celly?"
"Yeah, you totally should," Cadance agreed. "That paperwork can wait."
"I'm afraid it cannot," Celestia sighed. "I would love to go...ah—"
"Bar hopping!" Luna was grinning ear to ear.
"Ahem. Yes," Celestia said, rolling her eyes. "That. I would love to, but you two know how busy I am on Harmony Day."
Luna groaned. "That stupid Gala is still a thing? Freakin' Platinum."
"The Grand Galloping Gala is... not something I am allowed to miss," Celestia sighed.
"Come on, Auntie! Luna and I are going to have a blast! You're the leader of the country, just blow it off!"
"I cannot 'blow it off,'" Celestia said. "Last time I did, the papers destroyed me. Called me a racist because it was being held in Cloudsdale, and irresponsible because it was the 970th anniversary. Also, somepony bit their tongue eating a pickle and sued me for not being there to save him."
"I think it's your ego," Luna replied, apparently not hearing her. "You just love having ponies kiss you hooves."
"I do not!" Celestia barked. Her voice was unintentionally rising in intensity. "You two are lucky. You get candy and chocolate on your holidays. All I get is a boring evening full of stuffy, prudish ponies!"
A few offended patrons in the diner cast an offended glance in Celestia's direction. Luna's silly grin grew as Cadance's fell.
"I mean, I would love to go out and be irresponsible with you two," Celestia said, fiddling with a napkin. "But if anypony sees ME acting irresponsible, I'll never hear the end of it."
"So?" Luna replied. "Who cares what ponies think of you? You're not infallible. Pretty sure we proved that when you forgot your wallet and I had to pay for your breakfast last week."
"It isn't that I care what ponies think of me. But... I have ponies ready to make every slip-up of mine a chapter in a history book. And I have a student I must be a positive rolemodel to. "
"Student?" Luna blinked. "Oh! The unicorn!"
"Yes. Twilight Sparkle." Celestia narrowed her eyes. "The mare who saved your hide, you jerk."
Luna stuck out her tongue and looked away.
"Hey, wait, I know her!" Cadance spoke up suddenly. "She's your student?!"
"Indeed she is. Nice young mare."
"Yeah, she's... something," Cadance said. "Last I saw her she was hopelessly nerdy, but adorable, too."
Celestia nodded. The former had hardly changed, although she decided it would be positively creepy if she said the same for the latter.
"Well, that's a surprise," Cadance said. "Send her my regards."
"I will tell her tonight," Celestia nodded. "Hopefully she'll make the Grand Plodding Gala a little less tedious."
"She's attending? Well, if she's anything like I remember, she will," Cadance giggled. "I used to babysit her, you know. Once, I was supposed to have her take a bath, and she hid every bar of soap in the house so she wouldn't have to. Then, she hid all the pillows in the house when I told her it was bedtime. She was a diabolical genius of a filly."
"I admit I am somewhat hoping for that sort of madness tonight," Celestia sighed, sinking her head into her hooves. "Is it weird that I find ponies idolizing me to be oddly offensive? Does that make me selfish?"
The defeat was clear in Celestia's voice. Cadance and Luna shared a sorrowful glance.
Then, Luna brought a comforting hoof onto her melancholic sister's back. Celestia looked up and met her sister's supportive eyes.
"Yeah, it totally does," Luna nodded.
"Definitely," Cadance agreed. "With respect, suck it up, Auntie."
"Hate you two," Celestia grumbled. "Bring me back a bottle of scotch, will you?"
"Sure," Luna said flippantly. "Well, Cadance? It's getting dark. Should we head to the castle and get ready?"
"Yeah, let's rock," Cadance agreed. "Have fun at the gala, Auntie."
"I shall attempt to endure," Celestia waved a hoof, her attention already back at the last minute planning before her. By time she looked up, the other two princesses had disappeared into the dark streets outside.
Celestia blew her mane out of her eyes, ordered another espresso, and looked back at the papers on her table.
Amongst them was a letter from Twilight Sparkle that she had forgotten about.
Celestia grinned as she reread it, remembering the golden tickets she had sent in a heartbeat.
At least someponies would be having fun tonight. In the end, Celestia decided she'd be happy to endure a little monotony if it was for their benefit.
Came for the coffee.
Stayed for the fun.
I award you a moustache!
Nice little vignettes, and you have material for ages. I also like that, while they are sarcastic, they are not over the top cynical and mean. You've found a good balance there.
6945235 Thank you! I really didn't want to fall into the ancient sitcom trap of writing "friends" who borderline hate each other. That can get grating very quickly.
They might bug each other, but I consider them being mean a failure on my part.
Seriously Cadance, you're dating her brother and did not knew that? Are you sure you haven't been replaced by a love eating shape shifting monster already?
7000903 Actually I like to think this short story comes before the end of season 1. It would certainly make sense, Cadence isn't married yet (as mentioned in the chapter before), Twilight most definitely is still a unicorn. The thing I don't get is if Cadence had been a Princess her entire life (which I assume she was) what was she doing at a High School and how was she Twilight's foalsitter? Plotholes...
Grand plodding Gala.
Oh Luna, you don't know what you're missing
This is immensely amusing. Good show on you!
7000903 Yeah, it seems a little odd that Cadance wouldn't know that her former babysitting charge/future sister-in-law is her adoptive aunt's personal protege.
Still a fun story though.
7000903
7135112
Or she's just a little featherbrained.
I have a fanfic that features Twilight as a diabolical filly. I'm working on a threequel and this gave me a brilliant idea.
your
Loved it!
I love the dynamic between the three of them. It's absotively perfect.
one of my Favorites is "anything but the Gala" where Celestia keeps trying to convince Luna to host the Grand Galloping Gala...
I can totally see this happening.
Makes me want to drink coffee, even though I've never had it before.
Nice job!
so that's where moon horse was during the Grand Galloping Galla
8086571
I like how this story made Candy horse forget about Twiggles and makes her exist before her introduction.
7135112
I agree. Seems like Twilight would have mentioned it when Cadance was babysitting her.
7430079
Coffee is........a sybiote. It takes something away, but gives something beneficial.
9551700
More like a disease. It spreads through aging, taking away more than it gives back.
Kind of like a yellow marshmallow. You know there's nothing substantial in it, and you're going to hate life after reading a ton, but it'll give you that rush you're craving so much
aww, the golden tickets really place these as nice little what-they-were-doing-elsewhere vignettes! Cadance does seem to come out of nowhere in the S2 finale, as if her existence were mandated by a toy company or something, but given her position she really must have had some time getting to know Luna like this.