by Jonesly
***
Twilight Sparkle, Princess the Fourth of Equestria, Archmage of Friendship, Steward of Harmony, Newly minted Triach of the Heavens, and winner of the forty-seventh annual Ponyville chili cook-off scowled in frustration at the stack of paper in front of her. Muttering choice words that Spike would have gotten his mouth washed out with soapstone for even thinking about uttering, her pen scribbled messily on scrap paper as her hoof went down the official looking documents line by line.
A knock came at the door to her study, a quick rhythmic five raps followed by a sing-song voice coming through the door. “Twi, do you want to build a snowman?”
“No,” Twilight snapped, “It’s June and you know I haven’t seen that movie yet. If you’re coming in, come in; don’t waste my time with show tunes.”
Celestia Morningstar, Princess the First of Equestria, All Other Titles Refused, walked into the study. Twilight glanced at her, and then quickly did a double take, her stare fixing on the hoofball helmet worn by Celestia, with two bottles of cider secured to the side of it with tubing running down towards her mouth.
“I was going to suggest we go to the hoofball game, the Trottingham Terrapins are going up against Los Pegasus Arsenal, but now I’m more curious as to what has you in such a state,” Celestia asked.
“It’s the Budget Proposal, I keep going through it and finding line items snuck in there by the nobility and it’s driving me… Well, it’s driving me very Want It, Need It, to be frank.” Twilight huffed.
Celestia looked at her curiously, “The budget? Has that cleared through the exchequer already?”
“No, this is the first draft, I asked to look at it before the exchequer did, to try and streamline it so it would pass quickly and efficiently. I, um, may have bitten off more than I can chew though.” Twilight looked hopelessly at the stack of paper making up the budget.
Celestia took off her hat and placed it to the side. “Twilight, why on earth would you ask for that? There is a reason we send it through the exchequer. I've had them trained for generations to eliminate most of fat from the budget. We have PONIES. We use them, it’s what they are for. I love you. I want you to be comfortable as a princess, but this is one thing you are very much going to have to learn. We aren't Goddesses. We cannot do everything ourselves. There are limits to our attention, our time, and yes, though you would deny it of me, our knowledge. We must rely on our little ponies to help us in the running of the kingdom, lest we stunt their growth and smother them. So please, put the budget aside. You and I are going to go down to the cinema room and watch that movie. We are going to snuggle and coo at the sappy love story. Then I would request your presence next week at a special dinner I have planned…”
She trailed off as she noticed that Twilight had stopped paying much attention to her. Twilight’s face had relaxed, releasing the self-inflicted stress of budgetary restrictions as she processed Celestia’s words.
“I guess you are right, I don’t need to go over the budget line by line, do I? We pay ponies to do this for us, beyond that, we have ponies whose cutie marks indicate they’re better at this then I. I guess I just get caught up in things. I promise I will start delegating more.” Twilight spoke slowly.
Celestia nodded sagely at her love, “After all, Twilight, it just makes cents.”