Point was busy preparing tea. Tea of course was a very important ritual in Equestria, and everyone knew how exacting Celestia was about her tea. Today's offering was a delicious Oolong which of course was being prepared along Gongfu Tea Ceremony rules.
The special Tea Table with its brewing tray and Gaiwan lidded cups was ready. The fresh spring water from Whitetail Woods had been brought by dragon-fire to the perfect 95°C in its kettle; fish-eye bubbles sizzling softly. The Chahai, or tea pitcher was ready for decanting. Next to that sat the Pinming Cups, the tea strainer, a dark coloured tea-towel, tea-pick, tea-pet, timer and the tea-leaf holder and scales. Point wasn't particularly enthused by the dragon-shaped tea-pet, but he didn't need it to tell the temperature of the water anyway.
Outside the building was a soft knock at the door. But no-one heard it.
Celestia sat on a small mat next to the low table, with her back ramrod straight. To her left were Twilight and Scarcity, to her right Rainbow: and opposite, Point did the honours. He was just decanting the tea when with a tremendous crash, the main doors to the castle burst open. Point spilled hot tea across the tea-pet. It did its thing.
In walked a bedraggled orange lump towing a small yellow pegasus by its long pink tail. "Waphs 'oin' on" it said.
"Hey Dubya C", said Rainbow, brightly; hovering above her mat. "Hey Skitters."
Celestia's face would have been a picture, but she kept military control over all her muscles at all times. Even a bathroom break required a permission slip. She also recognised the interlopers as members of the Regional Council and surmised that they likely had been called over about the incident at hoof too.
Water Clover spat out Skittish Flier's tail. "Mah butt's been glowin' like a lightnin' bug at Hearth's Warmin' I tell ya. So ah hustled over here right pronto."
"Mine too", whispered Skittish.
"An' ah saw Skitters here jus' standin' outside the door waitin' so ah thought well if'n it were such an emergency then you won't much care if'n we come right in", WC finished. Whilst rather gauche, this did fit a logical conclusion.
"Why don't you join us for tea first", said Twilight, proffering a cup towards Skittish Flier. The two new ponies, understanding the importance of tea, deigned to acquiesce to the request.
"So how're the Marsilea paddies going, WC?" asked Rainbow. Water Clover started a detailed explanation about safer production methods increasing the demand for the crop when Pinkie pronked into the room from the kitchen, carrying a tray. "Did somepony mention teacakes?" Pinkie asked, hopefully.
Twilight sighed. "I don't think", she said, "that anypony did, Pinkie; or that tea-cakes are a part of the Gongfu Tea Ceremony." She ignored the burgeoning question of where Pinkie had come from, and when; and looked at the tears welling up in the caterer's eyes.
"Pleeeeeeease", said Pinkie, with puppy-dog eyes. Twilight gave in, and patted an open space on the table with her hoof.
Cups of tea in hoof, and extremely sugary teacakes scarfed down (they were surprisingly good for something so sweet) the ponies and their Official Visitor got down to the crux of the problem for which they were all assembled.
---
Mr Li had assembled a list of the character names for the Packaging Department designers to apply to each cardboard insert.
Pinkie Pudding
Rainbow Dash
Scarcity
and so on.
His list was created from meticulously searching through his new dictionary based on information given to him from Mr Liu's research. Of course, Mr Li didn't really speak any English at all, so the information he had been given was written in Chinese. He had the majority of the main characters sorted, but the last on the list was smudged badly. The only clear character was Ping.
Mr Li wasn't a manager, or a co-ordinator or even a line watchman. He was very proud that Mr Wong had put so much faith in him to do this honourable task; and there was no way he was going to ask Mr Liu for clarification. Ping could mean Water Clover so that's what he had put. The rice was cooked, and that was that.
---
Celestia wasn't exactly sure about the accuracy of what Twilight was suggesting. However, part of the explanation had outlined her role as the Sun Goddess part of a diarchy that ruled absolutely across the kingdom; with Blueblood as the unfortunate irritating and ultimately purposeless nephew. Even if it didn't strictly ring true to her right now, she was pretty sure that in her heart of hearts it must be correct.
It would be remiss of her not to explore all the avenues of such an earth-shattering revelation to ascertain its truth and potentially save the treasury, kingdom, planet and universe from certain doom. Particularly the first one. She also preferred a universe in which Pinkie Pudding made more of these teacakes.
In the background, Water Clover was still going on about her family affairs. "An' then Venerable Granny Metal-worker says to me 'You ain't seen nothin'! Ah could out-swim even Huge Computer here, now ah got mah water mojo back!' Still ah do worry that all the time she spends in the paddies might be goin' to her head, if you catch mah drift. Anyways with Grand Pear back, he's lookin' after the Pear Orchards now, so it's all good."
Rainbow was listening all agog to Water Clover. Skittish Flier was sitting quietly sipping her tea. Pinkie was enticing Celestia and Scarcity with more teacakes, while Twilight and Point were rapidly filling a chalkboard with complicated looking equations.
Twilight rapped her hoof against a table. "It looks like the socks were actually important", she stated. The other ponies looked confused, so she continued. "Lately more and more ponies have been wearing socks. They've become quite the useful item, particularly at home on cold days. But where does this all fit in?"
She lit her horn, and a small pop later a purple and black striped sock appeared in her field. "Why are there always odd socks? Where do these socks go? There have been well supported theories that suggest that missing socks fall through tears in space-time into alternative universes and dimensions. Perhaps it explains why so many seem to end up in large bin-bags at jumble sales."
"The increase in sock usage has caused rifts between our universe and another, and now I theorise that concepts from this other place are leaking in faster than tea through a strainer. We must work on a magical solution to seal the rifts and solve this riddle once and for all!"
Excitedly she stood on the table and held out a teacake to Celestia. "I formally declare this the Interdimensional Sock War!"