The Equestria Daily office was pandemonium again. Alex was camped out near the fridge in army fatigues and twitching constantly. They’d just had a new shipment of mayonnaise in, and he wanted to be able to actually eat it this time, rather than humanely destroy the remains. The new guy, Tempest or something, had barricaded himself in his cubicle with boxes of caffienated beverages, a stack of fanfics high enough to interfere with the ceiling fans and a grim look of determination. Phoe was...tied up...literally. Nopony wanted to ask why. Or how. Cereal was examining life as a fruit bat and hanging from the chandeliers with his rear hooves and Sethisto had got some sort of...paperweight in the post and hadn’t been seen for the last few days. Work orders had appeared from under the door to his darkened office.
In short, business as usual. That was, at least, until the main doors to what was loosely-termed the ‘office space’ flew open and in stepped a town crier.
“HERE YE! HERE YE! I BID YE WELCOME THIS DAY OUR NEW TEMPORARY PRINCESS, MIDNIGHT SHADOW! PROTECTOR OF CLOUD 14-B TWO HUNDRED FEET ABOVE CANTERLOT CASTLE AND STAR 11359-A, LOWERER OF THE SUN TEN SECONDS BEFORE DUSK AND REGENT OF THE FIFTH BROOM-CLOSET ON FLOOR TEN OF CANTERLOT CASTLE!”
There was a fanfare. It was loud enough to blast half the remaining fanfics into the air as a large, gloriously dark-blue winged unicorn with a sunset-streaked mane and tail stepped regally into the office amidst the renewed tide of gibbering cries of pain for the increased workload.
“...Midnight?” asked a stunned Siraj, the blue-grey eyes of the white-coated unicorn going wide with surprise as paper rained down around her, “What the bloody hell are you doing looking like that?”
“I...I...kind of said that Luna’s job was easy. That all she had to do was sit there looking pretty. I expected a one-way trip to the moon again...but apparently she’s really pissed this time.”
“Oh lawdy, what did you do you giant stupid plothole?”
“I...she made me a princess. For today. I’m going to have to help lower the sun! Do you have any freaking idea how heavy that thing is? It’s giving me mane-ache just thinking about it!”
Siraj snickered, “I’ll get the fire department on standby. Sooty’ll understand.”
“It gets worse though.”
“Worse?”
“Celestia heard it too. She’s making me wear the maid outfit tomorrow!”
“What’s so bad about that?”
“With my hips? I’d only be able to pull it off today!”