The headache of epic proportions had proven to be a veritable foe for Celestia. The first attempt was simple, a headache potion, when this failed it was followed by a pain relief spell. It finally ebbed away to a dull roar when Celestia called forth the royal physician to whip up something for a hang over, what followed was a thick green paste that tasted like moldy hay mixed with burnt roses, but it did the trick well enough to let Celestia go forth and follow through with her day.
After navigating the halls with a slight wobble, Celestia had finally reached the dining room, and opened the door slowly as the sunlight poured in from the wide open windows. "GREETINGS DEAREST SISTER!" Celestia jumped to escape the booming echo of Luna's voice so hard, that her horn was quickly lodged deep into the ceiling above her. "DID THOU SLEEP WELL?"
"Did you eat a megaphone last night?" Celestia grumbled as she tried to dislodge her horn from the ceiling. After several seconds of ineffective struggling, she finally hung limp like the worlds most regal of broken chandeliers. "Little help sister?"
Luna gave Celestia's rear hoof a playful smack, letting her swing back and forth from where she was hanging for a few moments. "Thou art truly a glutton for the drink Celestia," Luna said in a playful tone. "So, as the young ponies say these days, what did we learn?"
"I learned that my sister is probably still evil, and has not a drop of consideration in her soul for hung over ponies."
"Be that as it may," Luna said with a smile. "I went out of my way to make you something to eat for breakfast." She then held up a rather large paper sack. "And by I made, I really mean that I made one of my guards run to get you fast food."
"How thoughtful." Celestia grumbled as she wiggled a bit in the air. "Can you please pull me down."
"Oh, right, hold on." Luna quickly jumped up and grabbed hold of Celestia's rear hooves "Is it working?"
The horn stayed fast in the ceiling, letting the pair dangle a few feet in the air. "Ummm..."
"Oh we don't have time for this, GUARD!" At her call, one of Luna's and Celestia's guards came in from opposing doors of the dining room. "Get my sister down, she's going to ruin the plaster."
While the Lunar guard gave a simple salute, the Solar guard stood shaking for a moment before suddenly fainting with a nosebleed. "What on earth is the matter with him?"
"I don't know Princess Luna," the Lunar guard said in a flat tone. "Maybe it's a stallion thing."
Luna gave a shrug with her wings before responding. "Well, I'm no fan of hanging this close to Celestia's considerable backside, so would you mind using your weight to pull us down Miss," she paused to look over the guard before continuing, "Moonbeam."
The mare nodded and reared up slightly to hang off of Luna's rear legs. This did the trick, as the trio came crashing to the ground, shaking the floor with a mighty thump loud enough to revive the passed out stallion across the room. "Thank you Moonbeam."
The mare gave a sharp salute before marching out past the solar guard. "Come on tough guy," she muttered before dragging him out by his tail, leaving the two sisters alone at last. The two of them looked at each other in silence, only for it to be broken by the screech of the peacock from the wall clock.
"Ugh," Celestia grumbled. "Why do I keep that thing?" She walked around to the far end of the room, she at first attempted to grab at her bag of fast food with her magic, only to feel another sharp pain in her head cut the idea off and so she used her mouth to grab the sack instead. "It's just so annoying."
"Probably because it's a souvenir from one of the first clockwork artisans in Equestria." Luna replied with a frown of her own as she turned for the door. "I'd love to stay and annoy you further sister, but I'm afraid it's well past time that I went to bed."
"Mmm, sleep well Luna." Celestia said as she buried her muzzle into the bag. Luna gave a simple smile in response, leaving Celestia alone to enjoy her meal. "Ugh, fast food style tacos and burritos," She grumbled as she pulled them out. "I should ban that particular chain too."
She started crunching down on one of the deep fried monstrosities, and wasn't sure how it made her feel better, but it did. She took a moment to savor the flavors that can only be brought about from something so incredibly cheep to make, and discovered that two things had been laid out on the table before her, One was a glass of water with some aspirin next to it, the other was a simple note.
She ignored the paper for the moment to down the aspirin, and sit in silence as she focused on trying to not think about the bass drum of her heartbeat putting too much pressure on her brain in pounding waves. She continued to sit with her eyes closed as she downed more water, and ate another taco, and felt better enough to go ahead with the idea of looking at the note.
Your Imperial Highness Princess Celestia,
She felt another twinge on her mind as she read the phrase, "Imperial Highness? I don't run an empire."
The note went on, I am pleased to inform you that after pulling all stops, and using your plans, I have recruited the best help money can buy. With that, I am pleased to inform you that construction has finished. Please meet with me on the fifth floor central stairway, where I shall give you a tour of the finished job for your approval. Sincerely yours,
Bright Idea.
Celestia reread the note twice as she tried to wrap her head around it. "How could he be done?" Her face screwed up from the actually painful process of thinking. Finally she gave up and took a huge bite out of the burrito, only to have the hot sauce set her mouth aflame. "LUNA!"
It was a few hours later by the time Celestia felt well enough to head upstairs to meet with her contractor. She however, had forgotten how he spoke, and the moment his voice reached out to her ears, she felt them plaster against her skull in annoyance. "Oi yeah, 'eer she is!" He gave a polite, if not sloppy bow, "I'm so 'appy 'o see ya again princ'ess!"
"Nice to see you too," Celestia said politely. "I can't wait to see what you've done with the place, tell me, did you have any trouble with the funding, or moving of the staff to do your work?"
"Nah nah, no'a pr'bl'm 't all," Bright idea said with a smile. "Well," he faltered a bit.
Two days ago...
"Righ' 'at's 'e lum-bar, 'laster, screws, nails, 'ammers. Jus' need a bit-o 'elp." He walked away from the carts in the carriage parking lot and looked out to see a group of stallions and gryphons leaning in front of the building. "Perfec'."
Later that day...
"Look 'eer," Bright idea said with a pained smile. "Th' princess is 'aven some renovations to be doin' 'eer, an' ye gotta move a few rooms o'er is all I'm sayin'."
"And all I am saying," the mare in the room said with a frown, "is that you should have told me a few days ago so I could pack, some of us aren't even in our rooms right now, so why are you rushing us about? Can't you give us a few days?"
"Eh, well, th' thing is, 'ell..."
"A bi' o' trouble t' be sure," Bright Idea said with a smile. "Bu' I thin' I 'andled it quite well." He then looked down the hall and gave a slightly worried look at it. "Bu' anyway, as you'll no dou' see, I thin' my crew an' I did a pretty bang up job."
Celestia felt her forehead throb slightly at how he was talking and rubbed a hoof to her temple. "Fine, let's just, get this over with. What did you manage to do?"
"Righ'," he said with a sniff. "Since you ga'me a ra'er loose description o' what you wanted, an' the ponies 'eer on the floor wouln' move." He marched down the hall now, Celestia following with a touch of nervousness settling inside. "We wen' with a few differen' scales t' show off our prowess in design f' you."
He then marched up a part of the hall that was by and far, much too far away from the empty corner of the hall that Celestia had wanted, and saw that four of the bedrooms were missing their doors. He then threw open a new door that was erected in what had been at one point an empty bit of wall. "Th' firs' octagon chamber."
Octagon was probably the wrong word. Rather than a true octagon, this room, for there was no better term that she could think of, was oblong in shape. If it were an octagon, it was surely one that was stretched out for far too long from side to side. "Umm,"
"Ca' got'cher tounge?" Bright Idea said with a smile. ""Rather 'appy wit' this one. Had a bit o' trouble with th' decor, bu' you wouln' b'leave 'ow good somma the boys are in pullin' this together."
By pulling things together, what he had meant was simply that it was absolutely wrong. Instead of a large room that would go up for three floors of open planning, with some balconies jutting from the corners and walking and seating areas between them, she instead found a one story room with a false balcony in each corner with curtains drawn. Overstuffed mismatched chairs from who knew where were scattered all pell-mell across the floor, and an absolutely terrible orange rug was in the center of the room, with what looked like cat vomit in its center.
Granted, there was nice material going into the room, and some good lighting came in from the windows, but it was quite painfully obvious to her that this was not what she had in mind. "Well, I..." Celestia stopped to think about the right wording. Surely something was the right phrase to complete what she started.
"Say n' more say n' more!" Bright Idea said with a bow. "No' what you 'ad in mind at all?"
"Uh, no." Celestia said with a week smile. "The scales all wrong and-"
"Ah, no' the right size, no worries! Th' boys 'n I will ge' this back to how it was before the next week is up!" Celestia looked at him doubtfully as she looked behind the balcony curtain to find that there was a fresco of what looked like Celestia raising the sun, only the sun was red, and attached to her head, and her face looked like a drawing on a potato. An ugly potato.
"Righ' this way, I'm sure you'll find the scale be'er in the nex' room."
And so they both left, Celestia feeling as if she had been taken for a ride, but the ride had just begun.