Daybreak cracked her eyes open just as the first rays of sunlight streamed in through her window. It was a nice, cool morning, the start of what was sure to be a beautiful day. The curtains over her slightly-open window billowed in a gentle breeze that filled her room with the sweet, soothing scent of nature, while the chirping of insects and the singing of birds came together in elegant, flowing song.
Daybreak yawned. She stretched, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and sat up sleepily. A large part of her wanted to go back to sleep, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was missing something. There was a reason she’d woken up so easily, she knew there was, she just wasn’t quite sure what it was.
Then it hit her. Her eyes went wide, and an excited grin slowly grew on her face.
“It’s today!”
She was up in a flash, hopping up and down on her bed excitedly. She could hardly contain herself, and in fact, she didn’t make much effort to. She started to leap around her room, from the bed to the dresser to the vanity and beyond, her wings outstretched so she could glide from place to place.
“It’s today, it’s today, it’s today!”
She burst out into the throne room and shouted it as loud as she could. “It’s today!” The guards stared at her in confusion as she dashed across to her parents’ room and ran in, not bothering to knock.
Twilight and Chrysalis’ bedroom was, for the most part, a simple place. The walls were a deep, rich purple, and it was filled with practical furniture made from dark cherry wood. On the far wall, in between a pair of overstuffed bookshelves, was a mural of Celestia and Luna.
The bed was the most flamboyant part of the room. It was huge, and made to look even larger by the tall canopy that extended up to the ceiling. Long black curtains fell down past the edges of the bed, and beneath them was a hint of the black and green bedding.
Daybreak jumped through the curtains and straight up onto the bed. “It’s today, it’s today,” she chanted as she danced around her sleeping parents. “It’s today, it’s today, it’s—”
An aura of green magic caught Daybreak mid-jump and held her there. Chrysalis pushed herself up and stared at Daybreak with tired, grumpy eyes. Beside her, Twilight yawned and rolled over, trying not to have to wake up.
“Daybreak.” Chrysalis looked deep into her eyes. “What is so important that you had to barge in here and cause this… Ruckus?”
“It’s today!”
“What’s today?”
“The party!”
“The—” Chrysalis shut her eyes and rubbed her temples. “Right. The party.” She sighed and set Daybreak down on the bed. “Well, the party isn’t until this afternoon.”
“Pfft. Maybe the party party, but what about the pre-party?”
“There’s no such thing,” Chrysalis told her. “You’ll just interrupt their preparations. Do you really want to—”
“Mm…” Twilight sat up, her mane a mess and her eyes half-closed, and shook her head. “No, there’s definitely a pre-party.”
Chrysalis groaned. “Come on, you couldn’t just pretend to not remember that until we actually woke up?”
Daybreak frowned. “You said you’d stop lying to me.”
“That wasn’t lying, that was—” Chrysalis stopped herself. “Okay. I apologize, Daybreak. We are tired, though. Can’t you wait until we’re rested?”
“Why do I need you two? I could just go there early and you can show up whenever. Angel could even come get me.”
“You’re not going anywhere until you’re cleaned up,” Twilight said.
“And done with your chores,” Chrysalis added.
“Aw, seriously? Can’t that wait ‘til tomorrow?”
“You’ve had all week,” Chrysalis said. “If they’re not done, that’s your fault.”
“But—”
“You’re not gonna win this one,” Twilight said. “The sooner you’re done, the sooner we can head out.”
Daybreak huffed. “Fine.” She jumped off the bed and started towards the door. “I’m gonna wake you back up when I’m done, though!”
“Uh-huh,” Twilight mumbled as Daybreak left the room.
“Stupid chores,” Daybreak mumbled as she went back into her bedroom. She shut the door a bit too hard behind her and winced when it slammed.
On the inside of Daybreak’s door was a chalkboard with a list of chores written in elegant cursive. She was only responsible for her own room, so she didn’t have many chores, but what she did have she found tedious and incredibly annoying. Things like dusting, sweeping, and changing her sheets. All simple tasks, but she still dreaded doing them.
She started by pulling her hamper into the middle of the room and then running around, picking up all of her dirty clothes and tossing them in. There were a couple of books and scraps of paper scattered around, too, so she had to take care of those, but thankfully that was the only clutter she had. Then, she pulled her sheets off of her bed and tossed them over the stuffed hamper.
She dug around in her dresser until she found a set of sheets covered in little red flowers, decided she liked them and went to work making her bed, a process that made her very thankful to have magic. She couldn’t imagine how she’d manage it without that. When the bed was made, she carefully arranged all of her stuffed toys at the end of it, putting them back in the proper places that they were bound to be out of by nightfall.
She grabbed a piece of chalk and struck out those chores. Then she had a thought, and took a hard look around the room. She checked all over the floor, on the dresser, on her vanity, and then nodded. “Looks clean to me,” she said quietly to herself as she struck out sweeping and dusting as well.
With that done, all that was left was to get washed up and she’d be ready. Eager to get on with the day, she dashed out, through the throne room, and down the hall towards one of the castle’s many showers.
She would’ve just hopped in for long enough to get damp, but she knew she’d probably get caught if she did that, so she did the next best thing and showered as quickly as she possibly could. She jumped in as soon as the water was turned on, yelped at how cold it was and jumped back out, and finally, jumped in once again once it was warm enough to stand in.
She was in and out in a matter of minutes, and she hardly dried off enough before she ran back out into the hall with a towel wrapped around her.
She went back into her parents’ room and jumped up onto the bed again. “I’m ready! I’m ready! I’m ready!” She started to chant, jumping around and leaving damp spots wherever she landed.
Again, Chrysalis caught her in midair as the two of them woke up. “You don’t look ready,” she mumbled.
“I’ll get dry on the way,” Daybreak said. “C’mon, let’s go, let’s—Hey!”
Twilight had used her magic to grab the towel wrapped around Daybreak, and she started to vigorously dry her off. “If you’re not going to do it, I am,” she said.
Daybreak’s face was beet red by the time Twilight finished. “I can dry myself off!”
“Well, then why didn’t you?” Twilight asked. She pushed herself more upright, pulled Daybreak into her lap and started to brush her mane.
“I did!”
“Hardly,” Chrysalis said.
“It’s not my fault you can’t handle a little water,” Daybreak huffed.
“Well, it’s not my fault you get embarrassed by your mommy taking care of you,” Twilight said. She punctuated it by kissing the top of Daybreak’s head. “Okay, now the two of us have to get ready.”
Daybreak groaned. “Seriously? I have to wait for you?”
“Are you sure you want to go right now?” Chrysalis asked.
“Yeah.”
“Really? Because you seem to be missing something.”
Daybreak tilted her head. “What?”
“Well, I know I’m not the most experienced with this kind of thing,” Chrysalis said, “but I believe birthdays tend to involve gifts.”
“I—” Daybreak’s eyes went wide. “I forgot to get a gift! Why’d you wait this long to say something?”
“I was curious to see if you’d realize it,” Chrysalis said. “It seemed like a good learning opportunity.”
Daybreak looked up at Twilight.
Twilight shrugged. “I forgot. Sorry.”
Daybreak frowned. “Well, now what? I can’t go without a present!”
“Well, like Twilight said, we have to get ready,” Chrysalis told her. “You’ve got some time. Surely you can come up with something.”
“What, in my room?”
“There are some bits on our dresser,” Twilight said. “Go look around the city.”
“R-Really?” Daybreak got up and hopped off the bed to check the dresser. Sure enough, there was a small bag of coins sitting there. “I can just… Take them?”
“Go ahead,” Twilight said. “Just, you know, be careful. Try to stick to the main streets.”
“I—” Daybreak grabbed the bag and ran out the door. “Thank you! I love you! Bye!”
“We love you, too,” Twilight said with a chuckle.