The town of Ponyville was in quite the hustle and bustle. Ponies coming from all around Equestria to see their friends and family, stores with lines as long as a train, it was a mess, but a joyful mess.
That, and it was Luna's ticket for an excuse.
Pipsqueak offered to help show Luna, or rather Starry Night, around Ponyville. True, she could've just told him the truth and reveal herself. After all, the whole reason she shape shifted into this disguise was to not attract any sort of attention to her. Mainly so that she could spend more time getting to know the young colt. But she found 'playing pretend' felt quite enjoyable. Like a little game. Although she had seen Ponyville in its entirety already, it was quite enjoyable to have somepony other than her sister, along with the Equestrian royal guard crowding them, showing her around.
"Starry?"
"Hm?" Luna had gone and drifted into daydreaming again. Strange, daydreaming was usually a habit of her sister's rather than herself. Her thoughts quickly regathered themselves as they had arrived at their destination.
"This is Sugarcube Corner," Pipsqueak proclaimed looking at the structure that greatly resembled a gingerbread house. "C'mon, let's go inside!" he said. Luna had no objections, she was partially famished, as she skipped breakfast and came to Ponyville in quite a bit of a rush. As soon as they stepped hoof in the door a very familiar pink pony bounced up to greet them.
"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed in her usual nonsensical fashion. The element of laughter always was the life of the party when she visited the castle in Canterlot. Which made sense since she was a party planner, at least from what Twilight Sparkle had told her. "Oh! Who are you?! I've never seen you around before can we be friends of course we can be friends I'm friends with everypony in Ponyville oh does that mean your staying here in Ponyville that means I need to start sending out invitations for a welcome party-
"Um, Ms. Pinkie Pie?"
"Hm, oh hi Pipster!"
"Uh, this is Starry Night, she's here in Ponyville for the holidays visiting her family and stuff-"
"Oh that sounds super duper UBERIFIC fun!" Pinkie joyfully said, bouncing up and down as if she was made of rubber.
"Um," Luna interjected. Perhaps there was a bit of a downside to her current appearance, but perhaps there was a way to turn this pro into a con after all. Luna believed she had that expression correct. "We wish to partake in so- I mean, we would like some cupcakes please," totally nailed it.
"I'm super duper sorry you guys, but we don't have any. At least not right now. We usually have lots and lots of super delicious cupcakes in stock but we're fresh out of stock at the moment, holidays and all," Pinkie gave an apologetic smile to the pair.
"Aw, thats okay Ms. Pinkie Pie. C'mon Starry, lets-" as if on cue, the eccentric pink mare gasped in excitement, with a strange but brief dinging sound coming from supposedly no where.
"You guys can help me bake a new batch! Oh, even better idea! We can make an awesome gingerbread house with tiny little gingerbread ponies inside!" Pinkie jumped for joy at her idea and Pip beamed.
"A...gingerbread house?" An entire house? Made of ginger? Luna had no idea such things existed. Wait a minute, ginger ponies? Was there some sort of new inhabitants in Equestria that had appeared over her thousand years away? According Pinkie's description, the ginger ponies in question were tiny. Perhaps being so tiny they could not preform the tasks of normal ponies, and therefore could not afford housing? Yes that must be it. Such as house should be not that difficult to construct if it is to house very small inhabitants. This is quite an amazing experience-
"They're going to be so super duper yummy to eat!"
Luna's face dawned a look of pure horror.
Meanwhile back at the castle in Canterlot, Celestia trotted groggily awake. You would expect the princess who raised the sun to be more of a morning pony, right? Nope. With preparing for this year's play, Celestia tried her best not to oversleep. She succeeded, but proceeded to go back to bed after raising the sun. Perhaps she now understood why Luna preferred to sleep during the day rather than her night. Though usually she would stay up for breakfast. However to Celestia's surprise, her sister was absent from the dining hall.
"Hm, perhaps she is still sleeping," she said to herself and trotted down the corridor to the entrance of her sister's bed chambers.
"Good morning your majesty" The guard said.
"Good morning to you aswell," she smiled, "Is my sister awake yet?"
"Actually your majesty, Princess Luna left the castle some time ago." Now this was a surprise.
"Do you know where she has gone?"
"I'm afraid not princess, she did seem in quite a hurry though."
"Hm," Celestia pondered at this, eventually deciding to enter the room herself. The first she came across was a torn envelope and letter laying right on the floor.
Meanwhile back at SugarCube Corner, where Luna was almost on the verge of a heart attack. She was quickly relieved to find out that the ginger ponies were nothing more than baked treats. Perhaps her current child form was affecting her head as well. It sure wasn't affecting her excitement however, as Pip and herself put on chef's hats.
Plus, she now knew what a gingerbread house was. It was SugarCube Corner itself. How hard could making one of those be?