Everything truly interesting about this story, did not truly begin when it began on Monday. Rather, it all properly began on Thursday. On that day, usually just after court but right before Luna would wake up for dinner, Celestia enjoyed a stroll.
Celestia's strolls would typically be something simple, a walk around the halls, a quick trip to the kitchen, a jaunt through the labyrinth, a trot through through the gardens, a visit to the kitchen to get a quick bite. Most of these trips either involved a snack, or a specific need to just escape for an hour, but it was her way of thinking through her life, a habit most ponies have.
It was during one of these trips through the castle's many halls that she noticed something. Usually she didn't pay much mind to how the rooms themselves looked, after all, one surely knows the inside of her own house, right? It was usual during this time, that she would rather talk to the mares and stallions that occupied these rooms as she went through. That was what kept her interest, the small army of maids and butlers, guards and messengers, artisans and handyponies that all had a hoof in keeping things running smoothly.
This time however, being a Thursday, most everypony was out for a staff meeting with their respective heads of staff. Leaving Celestia alone to wander the halls and peek into various rooms that were hastily left open in the rush to exit to their managers.
The rooms here, were not exactly the top of the line rooms of the castle that everypony thinks about when the words, CANTERLOT CASTLE exploded in your mind. Rather than being opulent and overly dressed with the finest of things, like her room or the suites for dignitaries, these were simple rooms for her ponies to stay in should the need arise.
The need arise being, a weekend in the castle to handle a few business errands that is related to royal manners in some way, shape or form. Such things included being a staff member of the castle, one that had duties that required them to be on call and needed to be close at hoof. Or, being a member of the staff that did not have the means to live on her or his own in a city like Canterlot.
As a result of these things, approximately half of the rooms in this wing were dedicated to housing staff, while the rest were either empty, or housed a temporary guest that was doing something for the government. There were two other's that kept a room here however, Discord, an ever present part of her life now, even when she didn't want it, kept a room here for himself i the past. However, since he'd moved into a home in a space very much like himself, the room had been lived in by Stella, an intern from Gryphonia.
The other was Celestia's dearest friend that was still among the living. Not best friend, or favorite pony or anything like that. But surely, this pony was quite near and dear to her heart, possibly the stomach. She wasn't sure, simply because while Celestia loved the fact that Hard Spice always had food on hoof, she hated that he'd berate anypony under him for even the simplest mistake.
It was however, that as she was looking at the open doors, some in mid cleaning, that she realized that despite being someponies homes here in the castle, they remained for the most part, sparse of anything except the bare minimum of personal belongings. A few pictures, some books or games on a shelf, maybe a small trinket that they enjoyed. But for the most part, these rooms were indeed quite sparse in anything that made them truly unique.
Granted the pictures and books and other such small trinkets were there, but it was always the same look, one bed in the center of the right side wall with red and gold bedding. An oak wardrobe, a mirror mounted inside the door, and a small bookcase with shelves either filled with personal items, or nothing at all.
She walked a little farther down the hall, and came to a twist. Here, she saw a set of double doors and looked inside to find a rather empty little room. Inside there was a few covered couches, a bar of some sort, and a severe lack of windows. The room next to it fared little better. After walking down the hall farther, she discovered that there were several rooms that seemed to serve little to no purpose at all.
As she backed out of the room, she felt a slight tug on her mind. She looked at a clock to confirm what she thought to be true, and silently walked away to the dining room to meet with Luna before lowering the sun so the moon may be raised.
The following morning saw Celestia in Luna's small office, a blueprint in hoof and a grin upon her face. "So let me get this right," Luna said measuredly. "You want to personally fund a new room to the castle?"
"Yes," Celestia said with a smile. "The south wing's fourth floor, that's where the on site staff lives, and I was thinking that-"
"Thinking that they needed some sort of space, correct?" Luna asked with a raised brow.
"Yes," Celestia agreed. "Most of our guests that stay here, tend to not be placed in this wing much any more, and there's so many rooms that are sitting empty. I thought that if we knocked down a few walls, have the ponies staying change locations so they are closer together to free up more dead space close to the project, we could make a central location for them all to meet in."
"it isn't a bad idea," Luna said as her quill tapped on a piece of paper. "In fact, I believe I can be of some assistance." She looked around for a few moments in a rolladex before pulling out a card and floating it over to Celestia. "I found this one amid the dreamscape last week," Luna said with a smile. "Afterwards, I took the liberty to get in contact with him in case he was needed."
The card was as expected, not a professional business card. Instead it was written by Luna herself with the name Harmonious Spaces penned in a hasty script. "Is that his name, or the name of his business?" Celestia asked with a tilt of her head.
"The business," Luna said as she put the card back in it's slot. "His name is..." she stopped to look over the card again only to not find it. "Well, it's not going to be that hard to find him anyway," Luna said with a scoff. "Besides, how many businesses could have that name?"
Celestia gave a shrug with her wings before rolling up the plans she had drawn up. "Well, I suppose that I should contact the business then, and prepare to oversee this construction."
Celestia was about to head out the door, when Luna called out, "Wait, please. I've still some time before I shall retire, allow me to handle this, you have already got enough on your schedule as it is."
Celestia faltered for a moment in hesitation. "Well, I don't know." She thought about it for a few moments before finally nodding. "Alright, you go on ahead and find out where he is. Once he's here, I want to discuss his terms before I give you both the okay to do this."
For Celestia, the day was lackadaisical. Much of her time was spent in the same routine doing the same thing that had occupied her mind for the last thousand years, and it was truly a testament to her determination that she hadn't gone mad from this. At least, she hoped that she hadn't, but how could she be sure?
Celestia pondered this query for a few moments before the plants beside her throne reminded her that she was supposed to make her judgement on the case before her. "Yes," Celestia said with a nod. "I do believe that you, the ewe should be properly compensated from mister Sheers for your wool, as it was yours to decide what to do with it, and he had no right to sell your wool after charging you for a hair cut."
The stained glass image of a sea serpent gave applause by slapping it's tail against itself at the wonderful job that Celestia had done, and she rose to smile at the ponies before her. "I now call this meeting of the ponies closed," she said with a tap of her hoof on a small round stone. "please exit to your right, and watch your foals please." She paused for a moment before her eyes blanked out, and then said, "Por favor, salga a su derecha, y ver a sus potros por favor,"
When Celestia had come back from where ever it is that she went to when the strange voice took over her body, she saw a note on the floor by her throne. Sister, forgive the lateness of this note, however it had taken far too long for us me to find him. You will find Bright Idea in your office by the time you notice this letter. Sincerely yours, Luna.
Celestia gave a small smile to herself as she folded the note, and placed it in the space between her body and necklace. It only took her a few moments to get to her study, and true to the notes word, somepony was waiting inside. The first thing that she noticed about him, was how annoyingly bright his coloration was. A neon yellow earth pony with black and orange mane and tail, truly painful to look at. "Mister Bright Idea I presume?"
"Aye, yes indeedy yer majesty," he replied with such casualty, not to mention an extreamly thick accent. One that suggested not that he was from a foreign country, but rather simply never learned how to properly speak, and thought that he sounded clever when in fact, he simply sounded like a preschool dropout. I've been sen' o'er te'ye fer a look at'cher plans o' the cas'le."
Celestia twinged slightly at the way he seemed to combine two words into one with a very audible gap, almost as if the apostrophes constantly in use were personally slapping her on the horn. "I see," Celestia said with her most practiced smile. "Well, allow me to show you around, and what I would like done before we discuss the terms of price."
And so, Celestia exited while he followed. At first it didn't bother Celestia much when Bright Idea would comment on things such as, "Lov'ly bit o' glass work ye' go'che're," or, "Oy, are ye' sure I can step o' dis bit o' carpet? It seems ta noice fer a bloke like me'self." Eventually, after he decided to go on about the "foine craftship on the candle'eer," Celestia decided to cast a spell of silence over her ears so she wouldn't have to hear the inane dribble constantly spewing out of the ponies mouth, and simply smiled and nodded at him as she lead the way.
Upon arriving in the hall she wanted him to see and work in, she discreetly lowered the spell so she could actually converse with him. "An' th'ts 'ow I saved th' cake!"
"Remarkable," Celestia replied simply to be polite. "Now, this is the rooms that you will be working on," Celestia started, only to stop when she noticed he was measuring a bit of wall using the space between the end of his hoof and his elbow. "I'm sorry, what are you doing?"
"A bi' o' the basic measure yer eyeness," he said with a doff of his cap. "Looks abou' twenty cubits long from 'ere to tha' wall 'ere." He said with a gesture.
"Er," was all Celestia could reply with before shaking her head. "Anyway, I have some basic designs I've drawn here," Celestia said as her roll of papers appeared next to her. She passed them over to Bright Idea and gave him her best smile. "What I was thinking, was to take everypony on this floor, and move them down from the end where that corner is, fill up every room from here," she marked the room at the begining of the hall, "To there," she finished before leading the way around the corner, and from here, to there," she said to emphesise the space. "Then, we use the empty rooms left between to make a large central room for the staff to meet at, and have recreational time in should they choose to."
"Oy, yea," Bright Idea said with a scratch of his chin. "I see wat'chu wan," he said confidently. "Ow abou, a thousan' bits, plus supplies and I ca' 'ave i' done before you can say, ego sum stultus! 'At means ayemma genyus it does."
Celestia blinked. Not only impressed with the fact that he spoke in a nearly perfect accent for the ancient language. But being that she was at one time a native speaker of that language, was instantly stunned with how amazingly wrong what he said was. "Well, allow me to think this over," Celestia said with a smile. "After all, one shouldn't rush with the first pony willing to do the job."
"'Efore ye' do," Bright Idea said with a smile. "Please, 'ave a look at me' book 'ere, showcasing some o' me best work." He quickly pulled a very professional looking book from his saddlebag, and passed it over to the princess.
She looked at it for a few moments, not quite sure what to think of the book. It's just a book, she thought to herself. It doesn't mean that he made it. Anypony could make a book for them if they request it. She gave a very soft sigh as she cracked open the pages, and saw photographs of very elaborate rooms. Luxury kitchens, expansive living rooms, exquisite bath rooms, and stunning bedrooms. Every photo showed not only himself in them with his saddlebags and some sort of tool in his mouth, but there was photos of the different phases, a before, during, and after. There were receipts all neatly stapled next to the photos showing that, yes, he was indeed the pony behind these build projects.
He smiled and bowed politely and said. "Eye, i's like they say, ne'er judge a book by i's cover, tha's wha' me mum tol' me as a foal."
"Bu..." Celestia faltered. "How could you do it so cheep?"
"Cheep?" He said in response. "Ay, ye don' get it do ye," he said with a smile. "Tha's my service te' ye'," He said with a smile. "Oh sure, I charge qui' th' pretty bitties for mos' jobs, bu' if ye accept me work," he said with a smile.
"I see," Celestia said as it finally caught on to her. He's not as big of an idiot as I thought. Celestia said in her mind, and decided right then and there. "Alright, you're hired."
It was just then when Celestia suddenly received a letter. It arrived in a manner she hadn't seen in quite some time, from Spike. She unfurled it immediately and read it to herself. Once, then twice more before closing it. "Forgive me, but I'm afraid this has to come to a close. Please, find your way back to my office, do not enter, but find a door marked Kibitz, he will be overlooking you on this project until I return."
"Aye ye' majesti'" he said with a sloppy salute. "Don'cha worry bou' a t'in', oi've go' a hoof o' it!" He then made his way in an impressively idiotic imitation of marching down the hall as directed. Celestia went in the opposite direction, and soon had forgotten all about her little project as the letter from Twilight spun through her mind.