//------------------------------//
// The long intermission at Twilight's 
// Story: Too Many Octagon Chambers 
// by Phoenix Quill 
//------------------------------//

The letter of course wouldn't be something that anypony of a sane mind and body would call urgent. However, when you are as old as Celestia, the odds of you being actually sane is around the same as getting five of a kind in a game of Omaha with only one deck of cards in the game. So it's possible, but highly unlikely that you're going to get a full house and they're all aces.

With that being said, Celestia didn't bother to take her personal carriage, opting instead to teleport straight to Ponyville, just outside of Twilight's castle. She took a moment to run a hoof through her main to make sure that it was as perfect as typically usual, looked at a particularly reflective bit of crystal that served as the door and smiled wide to inspect her teeth, then finally headbutted the door to knock on it. 

Probably not one of her brightest ideas upon consideration, especially given the fact that somepony saw her doing it, and within an hour it became the most common way to announce your presence at the door in the elite circles, which made for quite the entertainment for most everypony else with common sense.

"One moment, the Great and POWERFUL TRIXIE has got the door." Silence called out for a moment, and Trixie was happy to answer by yelling, "TEACUP!" And so the beautiful set of crystalline double doors became a teacup big enough to swim in. This was followed by a sound of utter despair from somewhere in the castle, and the sight of another alicorn flying out the window.

Celestia now fully understood the message that she got, when it said simply the words TEACUP over and over again, she should have known that something was amiss, it wasn't until just now that all the pieces fit. Celestia calmly levitated the enormous cup aside and stepped across the threshold. "I see that somepony is rather overzealous today."

Trixie's only response was to give a giggle as Celestia stepped inside. The showpony tried to be polite enough by making a bow with a sweep of her hat, but she couldn't seem to quite stand still from the giggles she had got. "Princess Celestia, I'm sorry, I just, I can't seem to help myself!" She giggled a few more times before finally falling onto the floor and falling into straight hysterics.

At first Celestia felt concern, that only lasted for a minute however, and after three minutes of listening to Trixie's annoying laughter, she had decided that she'd had enough. "Teacup," Celestia said lazily as the laughter came to a halt. Celestia was quite proud of the results, as the annoying showpony was now a rather large teacup. A blue one with silver filigree design.

Celestia gave a sigh as she rubbed the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof. Without much thought at all, she turned the giant teacup back into the double doors and took off with the great and powerful teacup in tow. She walked a few meters down the hall before trilling out a friendly, "Hello!"

A few doors down, Spike popped out of the open frame. "Princess Celestia! Thank goodness you're here, Twilight Starlight and I have been running around trying to keep track of Trixie, she's turning everything into teacups!"

"So I've gathered," Celestia said as she passed the great and powerful teacup to him. "Well, half of the problem is solved at least, so where's Starlight Glimmer at?"

Rather than answer directly, Spike rolled his eyes and gestured for her to follow him. She did so, and the pair traversed a set of stairs to enter the map room. Inside, they found Starlight glowering over the map. "Look at it all, just sitting there, waiting."

"What is she doing," Celestia whispered to Spike."

"When she gets stressed out, she tends to slip up a bit," Spike explained in a whisper. "She's stress dictating."

"She doesn't look much like a dictator." Celestia whispered before looking back at Starlight to find that she was indeed dictating. To be precise, she was marching several potatoes in uniforms over the map. "This is too stupid," Celestia muttered to herself.

Celestia watched for a few more moments, only to find that Starlight was drinking dark coffee from a teacup. It left a small square patch of black on the fur above her mouth. Starlight sighed and swooped a hoof through her mane, making it swoop to one side. "Today Ponyville, tomorrow all of Equestria!"

"Dats mine pony," an all white earth pony with blond hair said as she threw a hoof in the air in some sort of salute before going back out the window.

Celestia gave a groan before grabbing Starlight by the tail. "Come on lets go before somepony does something really inappropriate in public."

"No!" Starlight screamed as she dug her hooves into the floor as much as possible. "The ponies of this nation are in need of saving, outsiders keep coming in, Equestria is week and I am the only pony that can do anything about it! We need equality, justice, JUICE AND COOKIES!"

"You need a nap in the coat that makes you hug yourself," Spike said in a deadpan voice.

A few moments later, and Starlight was properly taken care of, locked away in a room in the castle where she couldn't hurt herself. With that, phase one was complete. It didn't take too much longer for Spike and Celestia to move forward with the next step, which was to change all the teacups back to what they used to be.

It was an arduous task that took almost two hours, two hours that Celestia would never get back, but she could make up for it later. Somehow, she was sure. However, her work was far from done. The second task at hoof was to find Twilight Sparkle, which would be impossible for anypony if it weren't for the fact that Celestia had put a tracking spell on Twilight years ago.

She was found in the Ponyville clock tower, hanging from the rafters by hooking her back legs over them. She was rocking back and forth and muttering, "Too many teacups, not enough tea, no guests to enjoy the tea, not enough tea for the teacups, Trixie needs to be destroyed. Yes, destroy the Trixie pony, Tartarus would be good place for the Trixie..."

"Um Twilight," Spike called out from below her. "Would you mind not being crazy for a minute, Celestia's here and,"

"OH MY CELESTIA IS HERE!" Twilight then screamed like a stuck pig and exploded into a shower of sparks. She reappeared a few moments later with an impossibly huge grin. "HEY! Princess Celestiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...." She slurred briefly and then smiled again. "I just turned my blood alcohol level up a few points while you were... not lookin."

Twilight hiccuped before slumping over to catch herself on Celestia's golden necklace. She muttered an apology before standing up again, only to fall backwards. This earned the reaction of Celestia and Spike throwing their hoof or claw, depending on species, into their faces.

"Alright young missy, your going to bed." Celestia said with a tone of finality.

"But I don' wanna..." Twilight wined like a foal. 

"No butts." Celestia said with a frown. "You want to act like a foal, you get treated like one."

And so, Celestia teleported Twilight and herself to friendship castle, leaving Spike to walk home.





From there, things smoothed out a bit. With Trixie still a teacup, she was left in the sink to soak up some soapy water as Celestia looked after Spike. The two of them enjoyed a nice and quiet evening together, discussing stories about the usual this and that or the other. Every hour or so, they went off to check on Twilight and Starlight. 

Starlight was the first to recover and start acting normal again. As such, she was let out of the small room with plush walls and floor, and given back control of her magic. Starlight then expressed her thanks to Celestia, and it was the usual thing that she'd grown used to hearing. "Sorry for snapping," and, "No I know better than to be a dictator," and of course the ever present, "It will never happen again."

Celestia nodded in agreement, because dictating was her hobby, not anypony else's thank you very much. So the three of them got hot cocoa and waited for Twilight to wake up from her quick drunk spell. A spell that truly was dangerous in the wrong hooves.

By the time that Twilight had recovered, it was morning. Celestia had stayed over night, and Trixie was now the cleanest cup in the castle. It was Saturday, and Celestia had both today and tomorrow to herself, so she decided that since it had been a while since her last visit, that she would stay the weekend with Twilight.

Such spur of the moment thoughts had been the downfall of many a kingdom in the past, but not that day. No, that Saturday proved to be one of the most fun that she could remember in some time. After breakfast, she went to a theater with Spike to watch cartoons, then she went with Twilight to help Pinkie Pie bake at Sugar Cube Corner. Then she helped Starlight dust and shine the map room. And finally, she had tea with the great and powerful teacup.

At some point in that day, she knew that she had lunch, but to be honest, she found the event quite forgettable. All of Twilight's friends were there, and all of them were so polite and helpful that she was almost suspicious of what favor they had wanted from her. It turned out to be that they wanted her to handle the check.

At some point between lunch and tea, Twilight had disappeared, only to return an hour later looking exhausted. "Twilight, what's wrong?" Celestia asked in concern.

"Oh, nothing much," Twilight grumbled. "It's just that I had to run a few errands for tomorrow." She then gave a smile and pulled in several bags behind her. "Anyway, I've got dinner ready, it's just takeout, I hope you don't mind."

Celestia gave a smile as she took a sip from the great and powerful teacup. "It's not the source of the meal, but the times you share." She then gave Twilight a hug. "I'm sure I'll enjoy it."

And so they did.





The following day, shortly after awakening to raise the sun, Celestia found that a note from Luna had arrived in the night. She unfurled it to read as followed, 

Dearest Sister,
All is well at the castle, Kibitz and I have been overseeing the construction and despite a few hiccups, progress is moving fast. 
Yours,
Luna




Celestia gave a weary smile as she rolled the note back up, and proceeded to likewise roll out of bed. She gave a mighty stretch and yawn as two thoughts ran across her mind. Coffee, shower. At first that was the only thing that had looped in her mind, but after a few moments, she started humming an advertisement about not getting a lemon at something of orange, and it was followed by another thought about another carriage shop that was the word 'keys' over and over again.

By the time that she'd exited the shower, checked her hair and looked after her royal trappings, whatever sanity she had started the day with had eroded down from the worst advertisement jingles that had been deep seeded in her mind for who knows how long.

From her room to the kitchen wasn't too terrible of a walk, however, the sudden urge for any distraction from her errant thoughts became the forefront of her willful conscience. Upon entering the kitchen, she was greeted by the already waiting, and far too happy for her liking. "Good morning," he said as he flipped a pancake. "Breakfast is coming quick, but I've already got coffee going."

Celestia gave what could only be described as an insane sort of an answer. "Clowns are in the cupboard." She then pulled her new favorite teacup off a shelf, and filled it to the rim with coffee. She took a sip and gave a grunt. "'S cold," she said as she held the cup up to Spike. Spike rolled his eyes and blew a jet of flames on the cup, only for it to disappear, and reappear a few inches away from Celestia.

Celestia gave a small scream and quickly grabbed the great and powerful teacup from certain destruction. "Careful, you almost spilled the coffee." She then took a long slurping sip from the cup.

Twilight and Starlight now made there way into the kitchen, wide awake and too full of energy for her own good. "Good morning Celestia!" Twilight trilled as she sat before a plate of pancakes. "Did you sleep well?"

Celestia gave a noncommittal grunt before drawing in more coffee. "What in the name of me are you doing at the crack of dawn?"

"Well, since I've been living in Ponyville, I found that I need to get up extra early if I want to get anything done," Twilight commented casually. "You know, before anypony else comes along to drag into different adventures."

"And what about you Starlight?" Celestia asked with a raised brow. 

"Well, I haven't slept yet." she said with a nervous look on her face. 

"What could you possibly be doing all night long?" Celestia asked with mild amusement. 

"Well..."

last night

"Tell us, is our sister snoozing?"

"Yes Princess Luna, the coast is clear."

"Excelent," Luna said as she rubbed her hooves together. "Then it is agreed, we meet in the sub-cellar of destiny."

"Or just the basement." Starlight said with a smile as she lead the way downstairs. A few moments later and they arrived to a locked door. A turn of the key, the flick of a switch, and they stood at a table. "Ready?"

"We were ready hours ago," Luna said as she put on a hat with black and white stripes.

"Then let's do it," Starlight said as she pushed forward a lever on a black box. Across the room, a miniature city came to life as a toy train rambled down it's three electric tracks with quick speed.

Luna gave a giggle as she began to press buttons and switch tracks and other trains began to move. "Train leaving for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cuc-amonga on track 9, all aboard!"

Back to that morning

Starlight's grin grew much wider than anypony was comfortable with before she answered, "Nothing of importance."

"Right," Twilight and Celestia said together in stereo before going back to their breakfasts. "Anyway," Celestia began. "I think I'll be heading out for a walk today." She stood up and grabbed a pancake from the stack Spike was building up for himself and casually munched on it as she exited the room.

Silence sat in the kitchen for a few moments before a cupboard door opened. "Is she gone?" Pinkie Pie asked as she crawled out. 

"Yeah, she's gone." Twilight said with a smile. 

"Oh good," Pinkie then whistled and a small troupe of clowns came out of the cupboard after her. "I brought some friends to help out."

That was when the great and powerful teacup changed back into Trixie. She screamed, Twilight screamed, everypony screamed, Spike drank more coffee and left the room.





The walk turned out to be a terrible idea. She had planned on going down to the park to settle down and read a newspaper in peace and quiet under a tree by a fountain. When she had arrived, it turned out that several ponies had similar ideas, and were crowded under the tree.

Determined to enjoy herself for a few moments, she instead moved to a bench and lay down to read there. She was only beginning to enjoy a rather interesting article about the Crystal Empire, when a voice interrupted her. "Excuse me," a young filly said with shyness in her tone. "But aren't you Princess Celestia?"

Celestia gave a warm smile, and nodded. "Yes I am, how can I help you little one?" Such words came to much regret in her life, as it was then with great suddenness that Celestia quickly found herself surrounded by a large group of foals all about her, asking many, many questions.

It took some time for her to work her way out of the small crowd, but upon her exit, the time had marched along and it was already late in the day, so she made haste to head back to Twilight's castle to escape the crowd. She quickly moved up to the door and quickly threw it open and slammed it shut behind her.

She took a moment of heavy breathing to herself in the darkness, and it took almost a minute for her respiratory system to return to normal. Then she took a moment to actually think about things, for example, the fact that it was pitch black inside the castle, one that usually shone with almost too much light whenever the sun was out.

That was how she was ambushed for the second time that day, only this time by the adult crowd of Ponyville. The lights suddenly came into existence, an echoing shout of, SURPRISE rang out loud enough to bring the dead back from the Eternal Pasture. 

Celestia had never had a heart attack before, but was sure that she might have one now. She wasn't a young filly any more. If anything she was an ancient mare stretched thin like a small pad of butter spread about too many slices of bread. Somehow, she did not have an attack. Instead she managed to go into defensive mode and plaster on her usual benevolent smile.

Streamers and confetti fell from above, and somepony started playing a song on a sound system. Many shouts of congratulations and the blasting of horns tooting filled the room as Twilight and her friends came up to Celestia. "Twilight, what is all this?"

Twilight smiled as she passed a party hat to the princess. "I know that you have a royal jubilee in Canterlot every year to celebrate your birthday, but,"

"But," Pinkie Pie interrupted. "Twilight can't make it this year, so she was really sad, but when you came over to help her, she decided that she wanted to do something nice for you, so she came up to me and  was all like, Pinkie can you make a birthday party for Celestia? And I was all, hey yeah I can! And so, here we are celebrating your birthday a little early here in Ponyville!"

Celestia took pause as she thought this through. It took a moment, but once she was sure she thought that she might have an understanding of what was said, she nodded. "I see." She looked around and saw that everypony was already breaking into groups and chatting among one another. "So, no favors to ask of me?"

"Nope."

"No fawning over me like some sort of helpless foal?"

"Not even the slightest."

"Games and snacks?"

"More than you could imagine."

So, Celestia gave off a sigh of relief as she was left pretty much alone. She listened to music, and danced to the occasional tune, ate unhealthy food, and drank fizzy liquid candy, and had what could be called a fairly good time.

After taking some time out to lower the sun, she came back to see everypony lined up, leaving a clean pathway to a table. "Princess Celestia," Twilight called out from the back. "It is with great honor that we would like to present to you, your cake." She then stood aside to reveal that her sister Luna was also there.

Luna smiled broadly as she opened a door. "Now sister, be sure to blow out all the candles." Everypony gave a small polite laugh, for no real apparent reason. Celestia simply smiled as she walked up next to her sister, and watched as the cake was wheeled in. 

At first, it looked simply rather large at almost being a meter wide, bright pink and white with candles crowding the top. It became ridiculous as the length was reviled at almost 18 meters, every spare inch of the top covered in a towering inferno of small candles. Celestia deadpanned and said softly to Luna, "I really hate you right now."

Luna just gave Celestia off a grin that reminded her of the cat with a canary, and she softly said to Celestia, "Every single one in one breath if you want your wish to come true."

Celestia looked at the candles and gave it a thought, before making a show of trying to blow them out. Of course, she didn't make much impact on the candles, only getting a few that were closest to her. She rolled her eyes and cast the fire away with some magic, and everypony cheered.

As everypony applauded, Celestia leaned over to whisper to Luna, "I thought you were in Canterlot looking after Bright Idea."

"He's fine, I left Kibitz in charge," Luna said in a loud whisper. 

Twilight then passed Celestia a knife with a smile and said, "I believe that you should have the honors," before backing away.

Celestia looked at the field of cake and cut a small corner slice for herself before walking off, leaving the fate of the cake to the rest. "Everypony, help yourselves because there's no way I could," she paused before continuing. "Well I could but I shouldn't eat all this cake to myself!" A chuckle rang out as the party grabbed some plates and began to grab themselves slices, and tossing away the layer of melted wax off the top.

"Many congratulations my Princess," a prim and proper voice called out from Celestia's left. She turned to find Kibitz there, eating a slice for himself. "I dare say, that pink one certainly can bake a cake."

"Wait," Celestia said as she held up a hoof. "What are you doing here?"

Kibitz looked around before answering in a confused manner, "I'm eating cake." He paused before finishing with, "I was invited you know."

"That's not what I mean," Celestia replied. "I mean, I thought that you were going to be looking after the project while I, and my sister were away."

"Oh, that," he scoffed. "It's not like he could have gotten too much done since I left a few hours ago, last I checked on him he was still knocking down some walls."

"But he's unsupervised."

"I'm sure that all is well," Kibitz said with a frown before biting into the cake. "Hmm, not a big fan of the raspberry, I would think custard would have been better."

Finding that Celestia's concerns were being so smoothly, and rather nonchalantly swept aside, rather than calming down, Celestia was becoming more nervous about the goings on at the castle. It's fine, she told herself. What could he do in only two days?

Celestia ate her slice of cake, and drowned it down with a few glasses of hard cider. Around midnight, Luna made a show of distilling moonbeams into something she called, moonshine, and passed around small glasses for anypony that was interested. With a few drinks in her, Celestia soon had forgotten about the castle, her worries, and most of her manners.

Things got weird after that, and from Celestia's point of view, the last thing she remembered was talking to a rather large stallion that had caught her eye, the next thing she remembered was waking up in her own room in the castle, the sun already in the sky thanks to her sister, and a pounding headache starting at the base of her skull and ending at the tip of her horn.