The story didn’t start with a princess lying on a hard stone floor, just wishing she had the strength to stand as the first glimmer of sunrise streamed between the curtains to stab her in the eye. That was never how a story started, and she could only hope it wouldn’t end there. But right now, this princess was unsure about a lot of things, most of them relating to how she’d got there.
The light was dazzling, almost seemed to be burning her face. At first she panicked, worrying that something might be wrong with the sun itself, but quickly realised that it must just be her that was more sensitive to the brilliantly coloured light. When she was feeling better, she promised herself, she must have the window moved so that the dawn light wouldn’t be shining right into her eyes. She tested this theory by rolling over slightly, flopping her mane in front of her eyes. The sunrise was not quite so painful, though the pink-gold light was still bright enough that the Princess’s own hair seemed to have a rich purple glow of its own.
She closed her eyes, which helped a little more, and tried to work out what had got her to this state. The first thing that came to mind was nightmares. She could barely remember them, but the fear of something chasing her was still clear in her mind. Something giant, something terrible. A tomato with fangs? For a moment she wondered if Luna had somehow come to hate her, and her tiredness was a consequence of a night of disturbed sleep. But that didn’t seem right, the dream was a little too surreal to be an act of vengeance.
Her next theory was just as wild, but grounded in a book on magical theory she had once read, and therefore infinitely more plausible. She wondered if there was something wrong with Luna, and the contagion might be spreading through her dreams. But again, that suggestion didn’t feel right. Her body was exhausted, every muscle aching. She didn’t have the strength to stretch her wings, and even standing brought waves of nausea. But this didn’t feel like magic. It felt like…
She was finally awake enough to take a look at the room around her. She was in her own castle, at least, but she couldn’t account for why she would have been sleeping on the floor of one of the many rooms that didn’t contain a bed. Staggering over to a table in the corner gave maybe a hint at an answer. A couple of overturned glasses, and three empty bottles of Buckfast Wine. Quite a bit of the beverage had soaked into the table cloth and the carpet, but she could easily imagine that a much greater proportion had been consumed in the usual manner.
That was right. As the memories of the night before came rushing back, she nodded and felt another wave of nausea like a hammerblow to her head. Someone – she couldn’t quite remember who – had suggested a party to celebrate Twilight’s ‘official birthday’, the first year since she had become a Princess. It had been a massive celebration for the populace, with dancing in the streets. Inside the castle had been a more select affair, with the most sought after delicacies and rare tonics laid on for close friends. And as that party had drawn to a close, someone had suggested an even more intimate gatherings. Just a handful of alicorns, passing one bottle after another between them and talking until the early hours about the responsibilities they shared. She vaguely remembered Luna attempting to give a lesson on how to walk through dreams, but finding that she’d been too drunk to walk at all.
That was a perfect explanation for the rough morning. But this wasn’t just a hangover, there was a nagging feeling deep down in her mind that something was wrong. Something was very wrong, and it was taking her conscious mind an awfully long time to catch up. This was why she knew she shouldn’t drink heavily. She knew she had solved almost every problem that had threatened Equestria over the past few years. More than a few, now she came to think about it. But that meant everypony relied on her to be ready for anything, and with her head feeling like it was stuffed with clouds she couldn’t do that.
She twitched the curtains aside, letting the stabbing feeling from her horn wake her up a little more, and realised what was wrong. She hadn’t noticed it at first, because she was normally responsible enough to wake before the morning sun invaded her chambers, but the light streaming in through the window wasn’t just the glow of sunrise. On the balcony stood an alicorn, her horn glowing brighter than any bonfire as she attempted to control magic way beyond her normal limits. Around the edge of the aura, strange rainbows of pink and gold and colours that had no place in reality were forming and drifting away, and it hurt even to look at the spectacle.
For a long moment two alicorns stood side by side on the balcony, staring out at the rising sun. Neither was quite sure what to say.
“What’s wrong?” eventually Princess Celestia broke the silence.
“You’re… awake…” the youngster grunted, pain clear in her voice. Then she focused her magic, and the brilliant display faded slightly. “People were worrying. Couldn’t wake you… Searched the library… I couldn’t find a single book on how you do this? I had to try just using brute force… I never knew the sun was so heavy!”
The problem with oversleeping finally clear in her mind, Celestia exerted her own magic to take the load, and the iridescent incandescence around them dimmed to just a pale glow. “My faithful student,” she grinned, “Maybe that was a lesson I should have taught you a long time ago, just in case it became necessary. But you have outdone yourself this time, your first sunrise. A little tacky maybe, so much pink! But somehow it works well, the colours speak volumes about the artist’s heart and I feel it is truly a beautiful display. Only a connoisseur would ever be able to distinguish it from one my own, and I am so proud of you.”