Luna was bored.
So was Celestia.
Both princesses were extremely bored. The boredom was so much that there was no possible way things could get any more boring. At this point, even a lecture from their late grandmother about proper etiquette and hygiene would be welcome. Anything to alleviate the boredom.
"This is more boring than being trapped on the moon," Luna complained. "At least on the moon, I had a tiny bit of magic available to me. Enough to fly around up to fifty feet off the ground and do simple spells to entertain myself, at least."
"You had magic?" This was news to Celestia. She'd not been told of this before.
"Yes. Not much, but it was some." Luna shrugged. "I was too busy plotting my revenge to bother trying to escape, so it's nothing that you should be worried about."
"That's still worrisome for me. The spell is supposed to strip a pony of all their magic, and if I ever feel the need to banish somepony again, I don't want them retaining any of their magical ability." Celestia tapped her hoof in thought. "I suppose I could always modify the spell to make it more powerful," she mused.
"Actually, you can't," Luna corrected her.
"Oh? And why's that?"
"No magic, remember?"
"Oh, yes. That." Celestia had forgotten that little detail.
The two sisters sat in silence for a while more, then Luna let out a groan and bashed her head against the wall.
"I can't believe she made your guard lock us in the bathroom," she huffed.
"I know. I can't believe that Br- I mean, Posterior actually followed her orders." Celestia's most loyal guard had abandoned her.
"He's loyal to the rulers of Equestria. Right now, that's Queen Gaea, so he's just doing his duty," Luna explained.
"Yes, but still." Celestia sighed. "The fact remains that this is boring."
"I don't believe that will ever change, sister." Luna pouted. They were right back where they started.
"We'll just have to wait for Cadance or Twilight to figure something out. Twilight is still the ruler of Ponyville, and Cadance of the Crystal Empire," Celestia said.
"They barely have any power." Luna gave Celestia the most hopeless look she could muster. However, she had never been the best at expressing herself, so it looked like she was in pain and smelling an awful stench.
"You have little faith in them." Celestia couldn't help but to giggle at Luna's ridiculous expression. "They're more capable than you give then credit for."
Twilight was a hopeless mess.
She was in a bit of a situation. She didn't know where she'd gone wrong, but somehow, in her quest to find a book on how to stage a coup, she had managed to teleport herself into Tartarus. The bug-bear was also in Tartarus, and he wanted revenge.
So... to say that she was in a bit of a situation would be an understatement.
"Please, I meant no harm! You were a threat to Ponyville and I only did what I thought was right." The bug-bear roared, ignoring her pleas, and attempted to bite her again.
"Okay then, if you want to play that way." Twilight narrowed her eyes and shot a beam of magical energy at the beast.
Cadance was a hopeless mess.
She didn't know how, but she woke up one morning, she found herself in the crystal catacombs underneath Canterlot again. She wasn't alone, though. Shining Armor and a good portion of the crystal ponies were there too, and just as confused as she, although quite a bit more tearful.
Shining Armor, despite being a trained soldier, was curled up in a fetal position and bawling his eyes out. Cadance had tried for hours to calm him down, but she realized it was a pointless endeavor and gave up to tend to her panicking subjects, which is much harder than one might think.
Like any pony in this type of situation, the crystal ponies were stressed out. And like most ponies, they tend to eat a lot when they're stressed out. A unique fact about crystal ponies is that their diet consists largely of crystals. So when they're stressed out and trapped in a cave full of crystals, well, they eat them. They eat too many, and they start puking.
Yeah. That's what Cadance had to deal with. Cadance did not like puke, but she was forced to mop it up.
Good times.
"Yeah, you're right," Luna said. Celestia had a point. They'd handled themselves just fine before, so there was no reason to doubt that the two minor princesses couldn't take care of themselves in this time of crisis.
"Exactly. We'll be out of here before you know it," Celestia reassured her.
"Yes, but the boredom is starting to kill me." Luna flopped down onto her stomach and played dead to emphasize this.
"Luna, we've been in here for less than ten minutes." Luna sat up and glared at her sister.
"No, that cannot possibly be," she exclaimed. "You are lying. I see it in your eyes."
"No, I'm not lying," Celestia corrected her. "It's the truth."
"Oh? And how do you know that?" Luna challenged.
"There's a clock on the wall."
"...I'm done." Luna angrily marched over to the bathroom door, flung it open, and stormed out. It took Celestia a few seconds to register an important fact.
"Wait... the door was unlocked this entire time?"