“Ow! Hot-hot-hot!” Twilight winced, jerking her head back. Her tongue hung out, slightly red from the heat of her tea. She quickly levitated a cloth to dry her lips as she set the cup down with a plink.
She sighed as she looked at the mountain of documents stacked before her that needed her approval. She had only been a princess for a month, but already the lecherous, bureaucratic red tape started to set itself into motion. Zoning permits, requests for special appearances, offers of gifts or certain “favors” in an attempt to garner an approving nod from the young princess, and more lay on her desk. Very few were actual “real” concerns, and most of the chaff continued to flood her mailbox day by day.
Twilight threw her hooves to her head, messing up her disheveled mane even further. “Sweet Celestia, when does this ever end? I may be new to this princess thing, but I wasn’t born yesterday,” she said with an exasperated sigh. She levitated down a scroll and unfolded it.
Grand Opening - New Wine Tasting Vineyard - Canterlot Gardens! Anypony who is ANYPONY will be there! Requesting ALL ponies of importance to come, especially YOU, P. Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight rolled her eyes at the fakeness of the end of the advertisement. It was clearly a mass produced copy, with different names pasted in at the end in a desperate attempt to make it look personalized. Yeah, right. The font was even different from the rest! She folded it up and tossed it into an ever-growing pile of “maybes” to deal with later.
She groaned loudly, throwing herself back from her desk and angrily stomped up the stairs to her loft. She sighed wistfully as she stared out the window. Ordinary ponies trotted to and fro in her neighborhood, their forms becoming briefly illuminated in between the shadowed dapples of her home.
“Let’s see…” Twilight said to herself. “There’s the funding request from the school district, at least two dozen requests to sponsor a big, flashy, something-or-other in Las Pegasus, the sign-off on the grant for that big magic project in Manehattan…”
Twilight turned her head toward her desk, seizing her cup with her magic and bringing it towards her. She sat it onto the windowsill in front of her.
“It’s noon now. If I review the trade agreement from Griffonstone and draft up a response to send to Princess Celestia, I can start lunch by 12:30. Then that leaves time to check over the appearance requests from Fillydelphia, Chicoltgo, and Trottingham.”
She sighed and started to slouch.
“All thirty of them. From each city.”
She levitated the porcelain cup to her lips and she took a sip.
The warm, refreshing chamomile hit her tongue and the back of her throat, finally bringing a smile to her lips. For a brief moment, the idyllic scene of a half dozen or so townsponies meandering about made her forget her mountain of stress.
She took another sip.
She slowly picked herself back up, continuing her gaze out the window. A few pegasi wafted past the rooftops of the nearby homes before quickly disappearing from view.
“Regardless, I’m going to miss Rarity show off her new line of dresses at 2:30, but maybe with any luck I’ll be able to make the party this evening to celebrate Rainbow Dash winning the Cloudsdale Derby.”
She took another sip, sighing.
“At least Applejack will be there. I can apologize for missing her and Apple Bloom at the Appleloosa State Fair. And for missing Fluttershy’s tea party last week.”
She watched two ponies slowly trotting down the main thoroughfare, each taking delight in an ice cream cone. She couldn’t quite tell who they were from the distance, but their pace was leisurely and pleasant. She spent some time watching them, to the point where after several minutes, she shook her head. Was she being a creeper for doing so? Certainly not. Yet, something about the normalcy held her attention tighter than any of the politics that were looming on the other side of her room.
Twilight suddenly snapped back to reality. With a quick glance at the clock above her, her heart sank. “Oh dear, it’s 12:15! I’m not going to have time to—!” She cut herself off with a flourish of magic, reappearing at her work desk.
“Trade agreements… Twelve percent tax rate on import of raw materials…” Twilight muttered to herself, going over one of the documents and scribbling notes onto another. She wrote swiftly, but her constant checking and re-checking of her math and verbiage ensured accuracy was not compromised.
“School district funding… Local coffers, federal aid… Approved!” She stamped the bottom of a sheet with an image of her cutie mark in ink.
“Guest appearance,” she muttered, flipping to the next sheet in line. “Guest appearance—” another sheet. “Grand opening—” another scroll. “Give a speech—” and another.
“Hey, these are all from the same—” Twilight grunted loudly, taking the stack of ten requests for her appearance—all from the Fillydelphia Furniture Emporium of all places—and shoving them into an ever growing pile of what was clearly junk.
She sighed again. “I can’t just toss them all out. So many ponies are counting on me. I don’t want to let anypony down, especially not now. But I can’t get through all of this paperwork, much less say ‘yes’ to all of it!” She rested her head on her desk, staring off into space. She glanced idly up at the clock; It was one in the afternoon.
She frowned, her body sagging and drooping. A splotch of color amid the dull-beige parchment stack caught her eye. Her horn lit up as her magic grabbed the picture frame hidden away. She pulled it into view in front of her; It was a photo of the her and her five closest friends, all posed together for a group photo. Twilight’s focus moved to her sides in the photograph. Bare. Naked. Just like any other unicorn. She extended her wings out and flexed them before groaning in defeat.
She grimaced and wet her lips, now staring at her friends in the photo. Everypony in it looked so happy and carefree; even herself. She felt those printed eyes staring straight back at her. Something in both her gut and her brain jolted her upright from the desk. She looked back up at the clock. 1:15.
Twilight inhaled deeply, then exhaled, making a pushing arc motion with her hoof from her chest. “The trade agreement is drafted,” she said, pulling it from the stack of papers, forming a new stack. “And the school funds are approved.”
She grabbed another sheet, glancing it over. “This is for the magic research in Manehattan. I’ll have to review this tonight. This will be priority number one when I get home,” she said calmly, putting it square in the middle of her desk.
She looked over at the other papers. Junk. Useless fluff. While it was surely “important” to the ponies that sent them, most were little more than pleading at her to appear at some pomp-and-circumstance event. They cared that she was a princess, not Twilight Sparkle.
“I’ll review these after the Manehattan documents,” she said, glancing at the pile of papers. With a flash of her magic, she quickly organized them into three neat stacks. “If it’s an obvious attempt at buttering me up, I’ll just discard it. Besides, with the sheer volume I’ve been getting, nopony is going to take it personally. Still, I’ll give each one an honest check.”
She glanced over at the photo of her friends.
“At least, I’ll check them later.”
A small smile cracked from her lips as she took another sip of tea.
“Eugh!” Twilight retched, her force contorting as she forcibly shoved the tiny bit of tea over her tongue and down her throat with a distasteful gulp. “It’s cold!” She shook her head and smiled, despite the vileness of the beverage. “Oh well. I can grab an oat cake and a juice box on my way out.”
Twilight departed the Golden Oak Library—snack and juice in tow—and made her way towards Carousel Boutique. Whatever happened next, she would tackle it as it came. For now, she just had to enjoy herself in the moment. No papers, no politics, no worrying about deadlines—at least not for a few hours. She’d worry about all of that later tonight.
For now, she had some friends to see.