6:23 AM, Canterlot Castle
The blankets had reached perfection- not too warm, nicely rumpled, with all the pillows in precisely the spots that left Princess Luna neatly cushioned in just the way that promised a swift journey to dreamland, as Celestia had taken over dealing with sun-raising and the Tartarus-raising that had been most of the Night Court's dealing with the public.
There had been three cups of tea just to get in the proper mood, rather than the normal one. And she had slurped the first one loudly enough to make Missy Manners, the bedservant actually drop a spoon. Yes, a nice long nap was just the...
crunch crunch crunch Did The Royal Bedroom have mice again...WHOMP crunch CRUNCH...rodents of unusual size? WHOMP WHOMP CRUNCH!
A pony-high oval of plaster and drywall crumbled onto the carpet, with a pair of dust-covered legs stuck through the hole. Speckled with enough spackle to resemble an orange-spotted Appaloosa, an earth pony's head poked into the gap.
"Sorry, yer Majesty but this was the only way to get in past the guards without anyone else knowin'. Twilight's gone and gotten an idea..."
Sleep promised a horrible revenge more dreaded than Nightmare Moon, but Luna placated it with promises of a gallon or so of Zebrican Double Roast. The alicorn bent her head to listen to Applejack as she relayed the plan under cover of comforter. For a Twilight To-Do list, it was actually fairly short and she had just the extra unicorn in mind...
"We have decided on a late morning snack...er..."breakfast" will be in order to fufill Our Sister's request. And then a nap. Thou shouldst rest, Mistress Applejack. You look like someone kicked thine hindquarters all evening." With that, Luna stood up, burying her under a pile of extra-extra-double-wing-sized blankets and sauntered out as if nopony had just smashed a hole through her bedroom wall. The doors swung open, revealing two startled Night Guards and an even jumpier Missy.
"We cannot sleep, alas. The tea was not enough, and our palate grows peckish. Attend." The Princess sedately walked down the hallway, gathering the occasional startled glance from servants as she made her way through the Royal Quarters with two slightly bemused guards (not like you could tell) and the somewhat confused Missy in tow.
"Mistress Manners, kindly deliver my invitation to Trixie for breakfast. And make certain she attends. Her company in this trying day calms me greatly...." - and with that, the starry-veiled bedservant was off. "Surely, it is fate that a suitable pony be so near at hand!", thought Luna. "Twilight shall have her properly "powerful unicorn", and I shall actually get some shuteye!".
An hour later, the Princess came back floating a tray of leftovers and sweets, with Trixie bearing a similar one balancing a large pot of fragrant coffee and a similar one of sassafras tea. "We shall not be disturbed", Luna said as the two entered her bedchambers and the doors swung shut- and locked from the inside.
Within a quarter hour, half the servants were whispering about Luna's choice in special someponies, Applejack had added the remnants of a tray's worth of pastries to the crumbled mess on the carpet , and two ponies had made themselves an unofficial second pair of guards as Luna snored contentedly at last.
---
Canterlot Castle Gardens, 7:04 AM
Philomena stretched out her lovely, flame-kissed wings and called out to the risen sun from the tallest tree she could find. The sun had risen and it's blessed flames signaled that all was right with the world, as eternal as her dear Celestia waAAWRK!
The bird found itself pulled into the tangled branches by a hoof and began to puff up angrily, ready to scorch the offender that dared molest the sacred bird of fire and-
"Ssssssh!", said Fluttershy.
"Wark?" "Twilight sent me because she needs a REALLY big favor. Three of them. Could you...um...molt a few feathers?" "Warrrrrk?" "She has to write something really magical and pegasus feathers won't do. I tried!" "Wark. Waaarrrk. Wark!"
And with that, Philomena stroked a wing down Fluttershy's mane, leaving three of her primaries stuck in the tangle.
"Oh, thank you!"
---
Sally Stitch's office, 8:45 am
Sally would not be what one described as "relaxed", for an earth pony. After all, she -was- the Royal Tailor, which meant when she wasn't doing dresses for three princesses, she was fixing random accessories, broken stitches, scuff marks, and the thousands other wardrobe malfunctions that nopony wanted to see their Highnesses in. It wasn't a thankless job (as the unlimited budget for deliveries from any restaurant in the city showed), but you had to be a special kind of creative to get through the day. The occasional thin line from a too-quick run through a sewing machine or worse marred her blue hide, and thick red ragdoll curls held a bewildering array of needles, bits of thread, pins, and even a measuring ribbon or two trailing like snakes in the mane-grass.
That in the last few days absolutely every enchanted bit of machinery had ceased to function or in one case attempted to cross-stitch her ears to her head had only sent things from "too busy" to "going full Sparkle", as the castle staff called it. The spool of thread that was her cutie mark even looked like it was starting to unravel...
"Oh! No! We have a fashion EMERGENCY!" came from the doorway.
One ear twitched. A single pin *sproinged* from Sally's mane to impale a nearby ponnequin. A small, dim red light began to burn in the mare's eyes as she turned to glare at the blond-coiffed, almost vapid-looking creature sticking her hair through the door.
"Another one of Celestia's stars-be-darned hoofmaidens, here with the straw to break my back? WHAT. IS. IT?", she managed to get out in a barely controlled voice that crackled with too long nights and far, far too many minotaur energy drinks.
Under the thick layer of sky-blue eyeshadow, a pair equally azure eyes fluttered dramatically, utterly ignoring the gathering attempts for Sally to commit equuicide with her stare.
"The worst possible thing!" "Since she had a split hair in her tail", thought Sally. "Her Highness has scuffed her shoes!". "And the idiots forgot the repair kit. Again.". Sally jerked a hoof towards a shelf, towards a jar marked-
"Gold" Dust: 99.9% pure! 50% copper dust, 50% brass dust by volume
"Take that. Remember it's not real frickin' gold and don't come back complaining because you didn't heat it enough to stick properly to the rest of the metal."
"Not....real...gold?"
"What, did you think Her Majesty's heavy hooves of state weren't going to turn gold sheeting into a wrinkled mess in three steps? Of course it's not real gold! Besides, even SHE thinks that kind of bit-blowouts are nuts! Now GET THAT TO HER MAJESTY BEFORE SOMEONE NOTICES!"
The hoofmaiden quickly grabbed the jar in her teeth and deposited into a discreet pocket in the scarlet-and-moon cloth that draped over her hindquarters- then rushed through the door a moment before Sally bucked the door shut with a BANG.
She turned back to her project, grumbling all the while about hiring help that did nothing but look pretty and..."Oh buck it, I forgot I had to fix Celestia's shoes for next week!" Butting the door back open with her head, Sally looked for the hoofmaiden...who had already vanished. The next slam was enough to knock the gilded cross of needles and spool clean off the top of the door, where it rolled against a nearly imperceptible gap in the wall...
Running through a hidden tunnel, the "hoofmaiden's" exceptionally poofy mane slipped a bit, revealing an ivory horn. Three blue gems peeked from under her outfit as she galloped towards Twilight Sparkle.
"That poor mare, trapped in such a disaster of dressmaking! When this is over, I shall help her, but duty calls!"
---
Day Court, 9:58 am
Twilight Sparkle had finally met her match. And by "match", I mean a scroll of such lawyer-speech and legal terms that she had two books on Equestrian litigation open just to try and untangle the barrage of "forbidden from", "cannot do", and even at least three "thou shalt nots" woven into a net of "requests" and "if the Crown pleases" that the Herd (as the Houses of Lords and Commons were oft referred to) had managed to serve her with not a minute after popping out of what she thought was a secluded, hidden exit from the tunnel network.
Sedately seated on the Dawn Throne, Celestia leaned over as Twilight's mouth involuntarily formed another bit of legalese that made penta-alliteration seem like a nursery rhyme.
"They're saying "Sit down, be silent, look decorative, and do nothing until we tell you to." -which is what they did to poor Luna when she came back, they were afraid she'd blow up half of Canterlot, then plunge the rest into eternal darkness."
Twilight looked back, offended. "What did you do?"
"Politely told them they could kiss my horn in the sweetest, most poison-laced decree I could write and burned the thing on the spot. Which, if I could, I would do to that serpent in parchment...but this time, they have an excuse."
The two noble alicorns looked at the line of petitioners. Unicorns, mostly- but the rich suits and greying manes of more than one businesspony sprinkled throughout, and what wasn't suit or horn was the barely-sparkling forms of refugees from the Empire. Not one of the latter had so much as paid a copper bit's worth of attention to Twilight Sparkle, much less the usual measures of respect.
"An entire city is ashes and magic as they know it has gone out- which to many is a worse fate than never seeing the sun again. And yes, we will try to make better of it- as we discussed before court. Try to remember that for today...and tomorrow, if all is well and the sun does rise, I have a lovely place for that scroll. Philomena's place, about a foot below her perch.". One gold clad hoof brushed against Twilight's smaller one, leaving a few small scratches in each.
"Oh, drat. Another scuff on Our second-best shoes. Sally will be in a fit. Twilight, have you seen our hoofmaiden?", Celestia uttered in a slightly louder "Do pay attention" tone.
"She is such a devoted servant, I do believe she's already taking care of the problem.", Twilight twittered in a reply that Rarity would have stood up on two hooves and applauded for sheer overdone decorum.
"Why, no Princess could have a better friend indeed."
"Quite!", came out of Twilight's mouth, in a way that made the hearer think she might call for tea and crumpets next. A few not-quite-inaudible sounds of disgust managed to reach Twilight's ears from the crowd.
"Just a few more hours of this Diamond Dog-and-Pony show...", she thought as she pursued a hastily re-bound copy of Great Grimories of the Past and Present, wrapped neatly in a cover reading "Equestrial Litigation For New Legal Clerks". "Everyone else's parts will be simple enough. And all I have to do is read the world's magic and just write it down with a dash of something to hold it all together again. Easy!", as she scribbled another note for the ritual on the back of the scroll expressly forbidding her from trying so much as a firefly-summoning cantrip without a majority vote.
The nervous titter that followed accidentally managed to fool most of the audience into believing the ditzy, panic-stricken Princess Incompetent act. It was probably for the better.
---
9:36 am, behind Luna's bedroom
The sheet of vellum curled not a bit as Pinkie Pie lovingly brushed a thin layer of baker's glue over the thin sheet, then dusted it with a sparkling cloud of metallic "gold". Not a dot an "i" could be spotted with would find it's way under that glittering plane!
Six more shimmering sheets already were drying out, ready for their moment of destiny as the confectioner put her emergency cake repair kit to unorthodox use. Top-of-the-line baking sheets were as good for writing as they were for cooking, and the layer of metallic flakes was as easy to apply as a delicate layer of frosting...making her a perfect sugary scribe.
"It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty book, if the way is hazy...", she sang under her breath as sheet number seven stuck a perfect landing.
Behind her, Rainbow Dash snored along, having the pillows all to herself at last. (Having Pinkie Pie boop you in the nose at early-o-clock had ruined what could have been a perfect post-morning snooze start, but she was in fine form on the recovery.)
"You gotta do the cooking for the book, you know you can't be lazy...", only pausing to nom a passed-back chocolate croissant before it got stale. Can't have THAT.