Despite the seriousness of her work, Luna was having fun. After gaining permission from Mrs. Hardback, she claimed a corner of the study area in the castle library and set things up to her preferences. She moved away tables and surrounded herself with several reading stands. After searching the shelves for books that she thought might be of assistance to her, she picked a few out and started examining them. Whenever she found something she thought might be relevant, or at least interesting, she would use a ribbon to mark the passage, and place the book onto one of the stands.
Soon she had several tomes set up, and only then did she start to compare what they said to each other, taking notes on what they agreed on, and also where they differed. After that, she read some more books and did some more comparisons, adding to the organized chaos around her. She got so wrapped up in her studies that she barely heard the bells announcing lunch, and with some reluctance she pulled herself away to get something to eat.
At lunch, a note from Celestia was waiting for her, stating that she was still busy visiting the various archives and gathering transcripts for her and that she wouldn't be there for lunch. Luna was a little disappointed that she wouldn't have a chance to talk to Celestia about what she had read so far, but knew that she would get her chance when her sister returned to the castle with the papers she had set out to find. She quickly ate her meal, thanked the servants for their work, and excused herself as she made her way back to the library.
Back in the center of her work area, she continued with her studies. She was so engrossed that she failed to notice another pony approach her, and it took the sound of a throat being cleared to notice that somepony was trying to gain her attention. Seeing a spot of white out of the corner of her eyes, she marked her spot in the book she was currently perusing as she said, "Sorry about that, Celes-" She quickly swallowed the rest of her greeting as she saw that the pony waiting for her attention was not her sister, but a different member of the nobility.
"Prince Blueblood! Please forgive me, I was a bit wrapped up there. How can I help you?" Luna was surprised to see him; the two of them had rarely crossed paths since her return, and while she hadn't had any bad experiences with the noblepony, she had heard tales spoken about his rudeness and attitude. Still, they had said similar things about her too, so she gave the unicorn stallion a friendly smile, hoping to have those stories about him proven false.
"That's quite all right, Princess Luna," the stallion said while bowing his head slightly. "I fully understand how one can get wrapped up in what one is doing." He looked around at the various books that Luna had set up. "Ah, preparing for the assembly, are we?"
"Yes!" she replied happily. "I'm brushing up on all of the procedures and protocols. But that can't be why you're here. How can I help you?"
"I am here on somewhat related manners," Blueblood admitted with a coy smile. "After receiving Princess Celestia's call for an audience in two days, I thought I would seek you out and offer my services, to help you prepare for the ordeal ahead of you."
Luna smiled warmly. "I would welcome any assistance you could provide."
The stallion nodded. "While I agree that you should polish your presentation, and prepare yourself for what is sure to be a harsh gauntlet of questions, I believe I can best aid you in a manner that may not have occurred to you."
"Oh? What might that be?"
"The one thing that should be on your mind is winning the final tally. It doesn't matter how eloquently you speak or how well you follow the rules if you don't get the votes you need." Seeing Luna nod slowly, he continued. "Also, due to preconceived notions, no matter what you say or do there will be those who will vote for you and those who will vote against you. Your goal then must be to do what you can to win those votes that are still undecided."
"Agreed," Luna said. "Is there some special strategy that you would recommend to help me with that? A certain type of speech when I present my case? A special style I should employ when I answer their questions?"
Prince Blueblood shook his head. "Your highness, you limit yourself if you only use the assembly itself to influence those whose votes are up in the air." Seeing Luna give him a curious look, he elaborated, "You could benefit by meeting with some of those swing votes ahead of time, and make your case on a personal level."
Luna frowned. "I can see that helping, but I have so little time, I would not be able to meet even with a small portion of those who are still undecided."
"True, but that is where I can help you. I can direct you towards those who are the ones that would benefit most from receiving a personal visit from you."
"That would help me a lot," she admitted, "but I can't help but wonder why you would be so willing to assist me. We've rarely met, outside of a few official gatherings."
Blueblood chuckled. "Ah, but now that you are asserting yourself back into politics, it would well behoove me to make sure that I am seen to be one of your allies. For me to be known as a pony who has given you aid would be a boon to my reputation. And there is no need for us to limit our interactions to this either. For example, there is the Grand Galloping Gala coming up," he said, arching an eyebrow suggestively. "We could make the rounds together, perhaps we could share a dance or two there? Or-"
"I'm sorry," Luna interrupted with false sincerity, starting to grasp the prince's true motives. "I actually won't be attending the Gala this year, I'm afraid that I have other duties to attend to."
"Oh." Blueblood looked shocked, but quickly recovered. "No matter. There are still other things we could do, such as you treating me to a fancy dinner, or maybe paying me a visit at my estate?" he said with a wink.
"I'm afraid that I will have to pass," Luna replied icily. "I thank you for your advice, and I shall consider your words with all of the attention that they deserve, but for now, I believe that my time will be better spent here studying."
Prince Blueblood blinked a few times, trying to understand where he'd fallen short, when a voice from behind him drew his attention. "Why, Blueblood, imagine seeing you inside a library. What brings you here?"
The royal unicorn whipped around to see Celestia eyeing him wryly. "Your Highness, my apologies, but I was just leaving. If you'll excuse me?" Seeing the white alicorn nod, Blueblood turned and hastily left the library.
Luna made a sour face. "And here I was hoping the stories I had heard about him weren't true." Seeing her sister chuckle, she then asked, "So, just how long were you listening in on us?"
"Oh, not long at all, I only caught the tail end of your conversation. So, what pretext did our self centered noble use to visit you?"
"He wanted to help me with the upcoming assembly, and offered his aid in helping me single out nobles to visit personally to help sway their votes in my direction. It seemed like a viable idea when I first heard it, but the more I think on it, the more it smells of trading favors, or even outright bribery," Luna said with distaste.
Celestia nodded. "Oh, such tactics are used among the nobility quite often, sister. Sometimes it's done honestly, with nothing more than a well reasoned argument made, although this usually only happens when they come to me." She chuckled. "It's hard to bribe the pony who already has access to anything she needs if there is an honest call for it, after all. Still," she continued, her features showing doubt, "I find it odd that Blueblood was able to come up with such a plan so quickly."
Luna gave her sister a puzzled look. "Surely he isn't that incapable... is he?"
"Possibly not," Celestia conceded, "but I only sent out the call for the assembly a couple of hours ago. For him to come up with such a scheme overnight? Certainly. In just a few hours, though?" Her face turned thoughtful. "Now I wish you had agreed, just so we could find out who he was going to have you visit. I'd wager that those were the ponies behind this."
Luna shrugged. "Oh well. Still, I find it a bit unsettling that others are so quick to capitalize on this for their own gain."
Celestia laughed loudly, and then quickly put a hoof to her mouth when the other library patrons stared at her for making such an outburst. "Sorry!" she softly called out. She returned her attention to her younger sister. "Oh, Luna, I truly wish that this was just an aberration of how things go with the nobility, but trust me, this happens all the time."
"Why do you put up with it then?"
"The biggest reason is that it keeps them busy. You saw how clumsy Blueblood was in trying to sway you. Could you imagine how poorly run a town would be under his guidance? Or what would happen if he was put in charge of, say, the treasury? By keeping them occupied with trying to one up each other, they usually leave the running of the kingdom to those more qualified to such tasks."
"Then why even keep the royalty intact at all?" asked Luna.
Celestia chuckled. "Silly Luna, where would that put us then?"
Luna blushed, and then gently hit her forehead with a hoof. "Let's forget I said that, shall we?" she asked with a giggle. "Now, did you bring those transcripts like you promised?"
"I most certainly did," Celestia said with a smile. Her horn glowed, and a stack of papers floated up from the floor where she had put them previously. "Now, let's get to work, shall we?"
Dewdrop pulled up a seat, and smiled as Feather Down came trotting over to her. "Hello!" her earth pony friend greeted her. "I'll be on break in just a few minutes, okay?"
The orange unicorn smiled. "Sounds good," she replied. "I'll just look over the menu until then." She watched as Feather Down waved and headed off to bus a table that had just emptied. After skimming through the familiar list of salads and sandwiches, she turned her attention to what was going on around her. If she had one regret about her job at the inn, it was that she spent almost all of her time indoors and didn't get to witness the general activity of everyday life in Ponyville.
"Sorry about the wait, I know you only have a limited amount of time before you have to head back to work," Feather Down said as she sat down across from her. A blue mare came over to take their orders, and after they made their selections, left to go get their meals started. "So, how are you holding up after a short night's worth of sleep?"
"I'm doing okay," Dewdrop replied. "The hardest part was waking up. Thank goodness we have an alarm clock, or I don't think I would have made it to work on time. How about you? I thought I heard you stumbling about upstairs as I left, but I wasn't certain."
"Oh, you know me. I almost fell back asleep a couple of times, and I had to gallop to get here on time, but I made it with a couple of minutes to spare. It was worth it though! Even with how late we ended up staying in Canterlot, it certainly was a fun night, wasn't it?"
"Most certainly! Mind you, what happened before the dinner was a bit... hectic? Crazy? I don't even know exactly what to call it, but I certainly wasn't expecting to be ambushed by ponies bearing dresses for me to wear, that's for certain!"
Feather Down laughed. "Oh, that was one of the highlights for me! Not just getting to try on more dresses than I could afford in a year of working here, but did you see what those twins did to poor Pine Needle? I know I shouldn't laugh, but I can't think of any other stallion who would be scared in that situation."
"Well, I would think if the stallion had a mare friend he might be deservedly concerned, especially if they happened to be in the room at the time," Dewdrop said. "But yes, once I got over my initial shock at the situation, I was also having a hard time not laughing at poor Pine Needle."
"Heh, he's taking his crush on Applejack way too far. Say, speaking of stallions, how are things going between you and Haystack?"
Dewdrop shrugged and stated to reply when the waitress brought them their orders. "Thanks, hun!" she said to the mare before she left to go help some other customers. She took a bite of her sandwich, and then replied, "Things are going okay with us. Slow but steady, so I can't really complain, I suppose."
Feather Down rolled her eyes as she swallowed her mouthful of salad. "Seriously, what's taking him so long?" she asked in an exasperated tone.
"Well, first of all," Dewdrop said, "you have to remember rule number one of dating-"
"All stallions are idiots when it comes to love. Yes, yes, I know." Feather Down said. "But still!"
Dewdrop smiled at her roommate. "Well, also consider how things were before that night at the inn. We weren't what anypony would have called close friends. In fact, I would think that most ponies at first glance would have called us rivals, or possibly even enemies."
"Not enemies, but I get your point. There was a certain chill in the room whenever the two of you had to talk to each other. But it's been over a month now! How long does he need?"
"Oh, he's coming around. Remember, he actually came to visit me at the inn last week." Dewdrop took another bite of her lunch before continuing. "Why are you so gung ho about this anyways?"
"What? I can't help my best friend find happiness?" Feather Down asked defensively.
"Of course you can, although you're starting to come across a little bit too strongly as a matchmaker, to be honest."
Feather Down looked down at her salad. "I don't want to be seen as that, it's just..." she sighed. "I'm starting to hear other ponies talk, is all, and if I can hear some of them say something, odds are that lots more are saying it where I can't hear it."
"What are they starting to say?" Dewdrop asked, curious.
"You know, what they they say about any pair of mares who live together. That we're a thing."
Dewdrop tilted her head back and laughed loudly. "Oh, hun, does that really worry you that much? If ponies are that quick to judge and spread gossip, without doing any actual thinking, it's not going to matter what we do. Just ignore them, okay? Besides," she said as she floated her sandwich up towards her mouth, "if you want to put an end to those kind of rumors, you should go on a date or two of your own."
Feather Down made a sour face. "No thank you. There isn't anypony who I'm interested at the moment, and I'm not about to try the dating scene again anytime soon. Remember that dance we went to around a year ago or so?"
Dewdrop paused, trying to recall the event in question. "Oh!" she exclaimed, and then chuckled. "Is that the one where you fell asleep in the middle of a dance?"
"When they call them slow dances, they aren't kidding!" Feather Down said. "And that stallion was so boring, ugh! All he could talk about was his mane. I'd rather run through the Everfree forest than go on another date with him again!"
The two mares laughed at the thought, and around small talk finished their lunches. Giving her friend a hug, Dewdrop paid for her meal and headed back to the inn to finish her shift.
Pine Needle put away his newly cleaned dishes and was about to leave for work at Haystack's farm when he heard a knock at his door. He trotted over and opened it to see Fluttershy holding in her mouth a basket carrying a squirrel.
"Perfect timing," he said, careful to keep his voice quiet to avoid scaring the timid pegasus again. "I was about to leave for work soon, but I certainly can take a few minutes to do, um, whatever it is that I need to do to help get the squirrel moved in." He gave the creature a closer look. "Does it have a name? Is it a boy or a girl? Is there anything that I should know, or do?"
Fluttershy carefully put the basket down on the ground before replying. "Oh, no. There shouldn't be anything you have to do, unless something goes wrong, but you can watch if you want to. It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. And his name is Acorn."
Pine Needle gestured towards his pine trees. "Then do what you have to do, and I shall watch."
Fluttershy picked the basket back up, and trotted over to the trees, with Pine Needle following a couple of steps behind. When she got to the base of one of the pines, Fluttershy flew up and then took hold of the basket with her hooves and held it out next to a knothole. "There you go, Acorn, your home for the winter," she said.
The squirrel leaned forward and examined the proffered place. He sniffed it a couple of times, and looked it over carefully, going over every inch of it. Finally, it turned around to look at Fluttershy and made some chirping sounds.
"Oh, I know it isn't the biggest of places," Fluttershy said to Acorn. "But we had a really hard time finding places for everyone. And you wanted a place all to yourself, right?" The squirrel made some more noises in reply. "Well, I suppose that's true, but if you claim this place now, just think how big and comfortable it will be in the years to come. Wouldn't that be nice?"
Acorn replied in a tone that Pine Needle thought to be begrudging. Then the squirrel hopped out of the basket and lied down in the knothole. Fluttershy quickly descended and landed next to Pine Needle. "He didn't seem to be happy about his new home," Pine Needle commented.
Fluttershy nodded. "I'm sure it's just nerves," she replied. "This is his first winter away from his parents, and with it being in a strange place on top of that, I'm sure he just needs a few days to get used to things and then he'll be fine."
Pine Needle nodded. "I remember my first days here, after arriving from Stalliongrad. Everything was so different, and I didn't know anypony. I'm sure you're right. Is there anything I can do to help him make the transition?"
The pegasus considered the question. "No," she finally replied, "at least, nothing that I can think of anyway. Just keep an eye on him if you can, and if you have any problems, please don't hesitate to let me know, okay?"
"I most certainly will," Pine Needle promised.
"Okay. I still have a lot of things to do, so I need to be leaving."
"By all means, do not let me detain you. Thank you again." Pine Needle waved as the yellow pegasus took to the sky and watched as she flew away. He looked up at Acorn, who was currently exploring the branches of the pine tree he now resided in. "I'm off to work," he called up, unsure if the animal could even understand him, but decided that it couldn't hurt to act friendly towards it.
Acorn looked down, and made some chattering noises that Pine Needle wasn't sure were friendly or not. Putting the matter aside, he checked to make sure everything was as it should be in his house, and made his way to Haystack's farm for a half day of work.
On the way, he passed by the house that Luna lived in while she stayed in Ponyville disguised as Moonbeam. He saw that while the place still remained unoccupied, it seemed to be taken care of by somepony; the landscaping looked to have been recently tended to. He fondly recalled walking to and from work with her, and chuckled when he considered that very few ponies could claim to have worked alongside a princess on a daily basis.
A short bit later, and he had arrived at Haystack's farm. He opened the gate and walked under the sign that read 'Haystack's Hill'. Looking around, he didn't see any sign of Haystack in the air above the farm, so he went and knocked on the front door to his house. After waiting a short wait and not hearing any noise come from the other side, he leaned over and, grabbing a nearby dangling rope with his teeth, rang the bell that hung next to the door to alert anypony out working in the field or the barn that there was a guest.
After a minute of waiting, Pine Needle started to get worried. He trotted over to the barn and searched inside, fearing that something might have fallen over and pinned his pegasus friend, or worse even injured him. Finding nothing was out of place, he then galloped up the hill that dominated Haystack's property.
Reaching the top of the steep incline, he caught his breath as he looked around from his vantage point. Seeing no sign of Haystack, he slowly walked back down the hill. Was his friend still in town running errands? It was the only explanation that made sense, but it seemed strange to him. Haystack was very punctual in everything he did, and for him to not be home when there was work to do went against everything that Pine Needle knew about the serious minded pegasus.
Wandering back to Haystack's house, he decided that even though Haystack wasn't around, he could show up at any time. He went back to the barn and left the door open to show where he was and started sweeping out the small layer of dust that had accumulated over the weekend. Soon he found himself absorbed in his work, and humming a song to himself.
He grew so preoccupied with what he was doing that he was startled when he heard Haystack call out his name. "I'm so terribly sorry," the pegasus said as he walked over to him. "I don't even have a valid excuse. I simply got lost in thought and forgot what time it was."
Pine Needle put down his broom and smiled at his friend. "Lost in thought? I shall refrain from commenting on that and just say that I am glad that you are okay."
Haystack looked at the floor. "I probably deserve whatever comments you have to make. I got sidetracked after returning the book to Spike at the library."
"Oh? What happened?"
Haystack shared with Pine Needle what Spike had said about the confusion with the phoenix. "Turns out we might not be the only group of ponies that she's had some fun with. As far as I can figure it out, she either had planned to show off the phoenix's rebirth cycle to everypony, and simply got distracted by other things, or she brought it along as some sort of... I don't want to say sick, but strange joke?"
Pine Needle nodded. "And based off of what we went through last night, you are more inclined to think that it is the latter?"
Haystack made a sour face. "I don't want to think that our high ruler is some sort of a jokester who spends all of her time thinking up ways to play small pranks on everypony..." he looked up at the roof of the barn, trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to. "She's done an amazing job though. If you had told me these things even a month ago I wouldn't have believed them. I would like to think I have a fairly well organized farm here. But Celestia's management of Equestria makes me look like a yearling playing in the mud."
Pine Needle gave his pegasus friend a puzzled look. "So what is your point then? What are you trying to say?"
"I don't know," Haystack admitted. "That's why I was so lost in thought. Is there any reason to be concerned about these... jokes that Celestia plays? Are they something I should even be paying attention to? And if so, what can I do about them?" He sighed and shook his head on frustration. "So many questions, and not a single one of them has an easy answer." He jumped slightly as a broom clattered to the ground next to his hooves.
"I have found in the past when I have something that I can not figure out, it helps to just walk away from the problem for a bit. I'll work on something else, and while I'm doing that I often find that an answer to the first problem will simply jump into mine head," Pine Needle explained.
Haystack tilted his head in thought briefly, then shrugged. "It can't be worse that what I just spent the past couple of hours doing, at least. I'll give it a try, although it will be hard to not have my thoughts wander off towards it if all I'm doing is sweeping."
Pine Needle smiled. "Well then, let me tell you about my day so far to help distract you," he said as he pushed some crates so Haystack could sweep behind them. "I now have a squirrel in mine pine trees, due to Fluttershy trying to find winter homes for the woodland creatures..."
Luna had spent the remainder of the day studying for the assembly, and spent her time after dinner writing a rough draft of her speech for the assembly. After a peaceful night's sleep and an early breakfast, she did her best to polish her presentation, practicing in front of a mirror in her room until she felt comfortable enough with the words for what Celestia had promised would be an arduous process; going through a mock up of the assembly with Celestia and some other ponies chosen for the trial run. While she had to admit that things were difficult, the nature in which they actually turned out to be so had certainly surprised her.
"Dur de dur! Meesa Princey Blueberryblood! If we gives you de moony woony again, are you going to use it for a paperweight doohicker?"
The dozen or so ponies all broke down in laughter at the purposefully terrible impression of the unicorn royal, one that was made even more hilarious by the fact that it was Celestia who was making it. "Sister!" Luna wailed, laughing so hard that tears were starting to pour from her eyes. "Surely that isn't going to be something that I'll be asked tomorrow!"
"Oh, most likely not," Celestia agreed. "Sorry, but I couldn't resist. Besides..." she paused, and the bells announcing dinner started to ring. "It would appear that my stomach was correct, time to call an end to this and get ourselves something to eat." She turned to the other ponies who had helped them the last few hours by peppering Luna with various questions and follow ups. "Thank you again for your time and help, everypony."
The other ponies waved and filed out of the meeting room that Celestia had sequestered for their afternoon practice, soon leaving the two alicorns alone. "Thank you again for all of your help, Celestia," Luna said as they walked out of the room together. "I'm sure that the assembly itself will be even harder, with there being so many more ponies there in the audience and asking questions, but just having a chance to experience even just something like this has helped me a lot."
Celestia nodded. "I would be surprised if you face too harsh of a time at the assembly tomorrow. While there are some ponies that might not want you to reclaim your duties of raising and lowering the moon, I would bet that the number that will be brave enough to voice those concerns in the same room as you or I will be quite small. I think the best thing you can do is to answer the first couple of questions with full confidence. If you show weakness or uncertainty at the beginning, you'll give those who oppose you the belief that they can pester you the entire time. Show them that you won't put up with it from the get go, and the rest of your time should hopefully be much easier."
Luna nodded at the advice as they walked down the hallways of the castle. "I've been wondering what to do with myself tonight, now that we've finished everything we planned to do, and I think I figured it out."
"And that is?"
"I've spent the past couple of days studying and preparing like crazy. What I need to do now is just give myself a chance to let it all sink in. I'll go over things once more tomorrow before everything happens, of course, but I think for tonight I'm just going to lie down and do some light reading for a change. It will be nice to read something that I won't have to worry about memorizing or being tested on afterwards."
Celestia smiled. "Lucky," she said in a teasing voice. "I still have a bunch of papers that I need to go over tonight before I have any free time."
Luna's smile quickly turned to a grimace at the news. "I'm sorry. It's because of all the time you've put aside to help me today, isn't it?" she asked. "Is there anything I could do to help you get through them faster?"
Shaking her head, Celestia gave her sister a reassuring smile. "No, but thank you for asking, it means a lot to me. And don't you worry about it, I agree that the best thing for you to do tonight is to just take it easy. You'll have plenty of time to be nervous once the assembly begins. No sense in getting worked up before the event if you can help it right?" The two sisters paused as the door to their eating room were opened up by the guard on duty. "Just make sure you get plenty of rest tonight. Do that, and it will make things much easier for both of us," she said with a smile as they seated themselves at the table.
Luna nodded, and thanked the servants as they carried over the first course of the meal. As she slowly chewed a mouthful of salad, she thought back on all the preparations that had been made the last couple of days. She was nervous, and even a little bit scared. What if the nobility refused her request? What would she do then? She did her best to shove those thoughts to the back of her mind. If the best efforts of her and Celestia came up short, then so be it. For now, though, she'd think only on the positive, and make sure that when the time came, she did the best job she could do.