Chapter 2
Celestia knocked on the bedroom door. “It is time to wake up, my ponies.”
As soon as the words left her tongue, she heard a loud crash, a groan audible through the cracks of the closed wooden door. Not bothering to ask if she was alright, Celestia poked her head into the room. The room itself was in a much more… used condition than it was when Celestia saw it last. The bedside table was still missing a vase, but the shards of ceramic and the flowers that were once in it were no longer strewn across the room. Either her staff were a very quick bunch or her favored student had taken the initiative. It didn’t matter really.
Pushing the door open, she stepped into the room. Looking around, she noticed that neither of her friends were in bed. Of course, with a crash like that, the thought of still being asleep was… silly, but it was still important to take stock. Though, not only was one of the beds missing the pony, but also the sheets and pillows as well. Pursing her lips, she continued to make her way into the room in search of the two mares that were supposed to occupy it.
As soon as she reached the middle of the room, she heard the distinct sound of water running in the bathroom. Celestia rolled her eyes. Of course somepony was in the shower. Should have been obvious. One pony accounted for, if the identity not readily available, she turned to the left, noticing something that was undoubtedly Twilight’s: dozens upon dozens of scrolls, books, and letters from economists and linguists were strewn about the desk. “I knew that Luna was going to give her some homework, but dear me,” she whispered.
Shaking her head, she heard a small groan to her left. Shifting her attention there, she noticed a lump of pink wrapped in white sheets. Giggling to herself lightly, she shook her head for what felt like the tenth time that minute. Getting close to Pinkie's face, Celestia whispered, “Pinkie Pie, are you alright?”
Pinkie slowly brought her only free leg to her head. “Mama? Is that you?”
Celestia giggled. “No, dear Pinkie Pie. It’s me, Princess Celestia.”
“But mama,” the mare whispered, trying to roll over to her other side. She was... unsuccessful. “I don't wanna go work in the field today. I just wanna tell the princess how cute she looks in a sundress.”
“Oh?” She snickered. “Which princess?”
“Mmm… all of them.”
“Oh? And have you seen any of the princesses in sundresses, Pinkie Pie?”
“Hmm… No.” There was a pause for just a second. “Well… I saw Twi-Twi in one. She looked like a cow.”
Celestia raised her hoof just in time to cover the snort. “I’ll let her know. It’s time to wake up.”
“Hmm… five more minutes.”
“Oh darn. I was hoping you wanted to get up. I heard that there were some tasty pancakes that were just begging to be eaten and they might be gone in three minutes.”
“Pancakes!?” Pinkie yelled, jumping out of the burrito-comforter in a blink. “There's pancakes somewhere? Where!?”
“Remember where we had our dinner last night?” Pinkie nodded her head, her eyes wide and unblinking. “There may or may not be pancakes there right this second. If you go there now, you can—”
Celestia stopped talking upon seeing that the pony shape in front of her was only a cloud of dust. Smiling, Celestia could hardly believe how that pony could move so quickly: she missed Pinkie's grand escape and had only blinked once. Further, how that large amount of dust had somehow found its way into the middle of the room was something quite odd. I’m going to have to talk to the cleaning staff about that later, she thought to herself. Granted that wasn’t even touching the question of how she shaped the cloud of dust into the shape of a pony, but some questions are best not asked.
She heard the sound of the bathroom door opening behind her. Turning her head, she saw that indeed the bathroom doors were open, hot steam billowing out from the room beyond. It obscured her vision of anything passing through the doorway, though she could hear the sound of hooves on tile as the pony came out. As the mist dispersed, Celestia could finally make out the towel-clad Twilight Sparkle, her tail still dripping with water.
A blink, and Twilight broke the ice. “Did I hear something about cows eating pancakes?”
“Bye bye, Twi-Twi! I'll see you laters!” Pinkie yelled as she waved wildly.
Twilight waved back once before passing through the door on the opposite side of the room with Luna; off to perform her studies with her sister, with a lot of the yawning added in for flavor. Granted, if any two ponies would be more interested in the subject as opposed to having free time, it would be those two. What that said about the sanity of them, she did not want to ponder.
Hopefully the rest of the day would be more exciting than breakfast itself. The idle conversation that the four shared was quite lacking in the sense of actual enjoyment. If there was one thing she hated more than doing behind-the-scenes paperwork, it was talking about the behind-the-scenes paperwork. On and on Twilight went, with “nominal and real exchange rates” this and “capital taxation policies” that. Heck, with the way Luna and Twilight were going back and forth on the subjects, it was all she could to not fall asleep in a pancake pillow.
Thankfully, Pinkie was there to provide a small amount of entertainment. Indeed, the highlight of the meal was when Pinkie took a single, massive bite to fill her entire mouth with what had to be at least five stacks of pancakes. With Celestia’s, and undoubtedly her sister’s and Twilight’s, mouths gaping in awe, Pinkie devoured the entire stacks... then asked for more. That was enough of the food to last Celestia half a week, let alone until seconds! How did Pinkie do that? Better yet, where in the name of the sun and moon did that pony keep all of that food? It had to have something to do with how Pinkie was the avatar of laughter, for there could be no natural explanation that would explain the phenomena.
Further testing would be in order. Maybe later today
Shaking her head, she looked down at that very pony, who was currently standing right next to her in the otherwise empty dining room. I shall be alone with a pony for an entire day, she thought to herself. This will be interesting. With the exception of Luna, Twilight, and maybe Shining Armor, this was the very first time that she had been alone with somepony for any amount of time in… what had to be decades. Every other interaction with anypony was either under the suffocating watch of her guards, surrounded by ponies at formal parties, or in the middle of governmental business with throngs of officials. The select times that she actually a chance to have fun or leisure of late was spent with a nice book and some tea.
Taking a hint from last night’s and this morning’s antics, Celestia was certain that Pinkie didn't want to partake in that sort of activity. She'd have to go to her fallback plan.
Celestia had her mouth half agape when she stopped, realizing that she didn't have any other sort of entertainment to think of, let alone a fallback plan. Indeed, the only other thing that Celestia could think of was to discuss the politics of late, but that was easily one of the more terrible ideas possible. Discussing politics with Pinkie Pie?. The only thing that would come out of that endeavor was probably a lot of confusion about what either one was talking about, a half destroyed china set, and probably some unintended war being started with the breezies or something just as irrational. Most likely involving said china set. Yeah, that was definitely a poor idea.
“You okay, Princess?”
Celestia blinked, and saw the the pink face that was right up against her own, the scent of maple syrup entering her nostrils. She didn't suddenly recoil in shock, but she definitely pulled her head back to a safe distance. Nodding once, Celestia replied, “Why yes, Pinkie Pie. Thank you for your concern.”
Pinkie looked at Celestia for a second longer, before pulling back herself and hopping around the massive dining room table. “Okie dokie! Well... whatcha wanna do?”
“Well...” Celestia trailed off as she thought to herself. There had to be something that the introverted princess could do with extroverted Pinkie that didn't consist of bodily harm or property damage. Tea already resulted in both. Reading as well. So was painting, writing, board games, and everything else dealing with art or design. If there was ever a time her brain needed genius, this was it.
Celestia just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “How about I show you all the secret areas of the castle?”
Pinkie stopped hopping and flew towards Celestia with much wider eyes, their faces now once again right up against each other. “There are secret areas in the castle!?”
Are there?
“Of course, Pinkie Pie.” Celestia nodded. “This castle has been around for almost a thousand years and has changed so much since its early days. Many of the rooms in the basement haven't been used in decades. Even I don’t remember most of what is down there.”
“Reaaaaaaally?” Pinkie sat down and began to rub her chin with a forehoof. “Sounds suspicious. How come I haven't heard of these rooms? ”
Celestia leaned closer and winked at Pinkie with a smirk. “Because they're secret. If you had heard of them, they wouldn't be secret, now would they?”
“Maybe, but Twilight used to live here when she was a filly! She totally would've explored these areas!”
“Pinkie Pie, have you ever known my student to pass up a good book to go do anything that might be considered exciting?”
Pinkie stopped rubbing her chin and, after a second, pointed at Celestia. “Touché.”
“Indeed, Pinkie Pie,” Celestia replied with a chuckle. Turning around towards the hall, Celestia made her way to the old entrance to the lower castle. Or at least where she thought it was. “Care to join me on our wondrous quest?”
Immediately, Pinkie hopped up next to Celestia and and walked side-by-side with her. “Ooh! It's like some sort of adventure book or something, with lions, alligators, and monkeys that want nothing else but to steal me away so that you can rescue me!”
“Me, rescue you?” Celestia rolled her eyes. “I thought that the heroine was supposed to save the princess, dear Pinkie, not the other way around.”
“True, but I don't think that I would do a very good job at saving you. You're much stronger than me, and thus much more qualified to save my pink flank!” Pinkie giggled, bouncing down the hall.
“This is coming from the pony that has had a hoof in saving me more than once.” Celestia winked at Pinkie.
Pinkie winked back. “Oh, I'm just one simple pony in a team of six. You're the mare with the plan.”
Celestia looked up to see a wooden door off to the side of the hall—the degraded planks much more ragged than the rest of the doors in the hallway. Indeed, and I hope this plan is a good one…
“And this, apparently, is another one of the many guest chambers that we have down here,” Celestia groaned as she looked inside the room, or at least the remains of said room. The only things inside were the frame of a single bed, what used to be a large drop rug, and a doorless wardrobe. Sighing, she covered her face with a forehoof. “What is this? The tenth one?”
“It's the seventeenth!” Pinkie hopped into the room, inspecting every single one of the archaic pieces of furniture. It was a quick search. “Well, unless you count those two itty-bitty teeny-weenie ones as halfsies. Then this is the sixteenth.”
“Right.” Celestia rolled her eyes as she also stepped into the room. For a moment, she was tempted to join Pinkie inside of the room to explore, but the thought of what might currently be... inhabiting the “rug” was all that was needed to blow away that thought. “Why in the name of the sun and moon do we have so many of these?”
“I don't know!” Pinkie hopped up next to the bed and inspected the sturdiness of the bedframe with her hoof. “Maybe you had a lot of guests that needed lots of rooms back then?”
Celestia thought back, but the memories of the early days after Luna’s exile were foggy at best, let alone how many guests stayed at the castle at that time. All for the better. “I don't recall exactly how many stayed at the castle back then, but I'm sure it wasn't this many.”
Pinkie looked back, and winked at Celestia. “Maybe they were special guests then.”
She knew it was a joke. She knew full well that Pinkie was baiting her into a trap. However, she sprung it anyway—the thought of having so many... “servants” at her bidding like that sent a small blush to her cheeks. It was hopefully not noticeable through her white coat, but she knew if Pinkie looked hard enough, she’d surely notice.
Thankfully, Pinkie either didn't seem to notice or didn’t bother to mention it, for after a simple wink Pinkie turned away and looked at the ragged room some more. Another second, and Celestia finally spoke. “I've never had guests like that, Pinkie Pie.”
“Are you suuuuuuuure? You're a princess, after all!” Pinkie exclaimed as she hopped out of the room. Onward to the next door. “I mean, you can do whatever you want!”
Celestia followed close by. “I am quite sure, Pinkie Pie.”
“If you say so, Celly-Belly.” Pinkie opened the next door, and leaped into the room. “Coooooooool!”
“What'd you find?” Celestia asked as she rounded the corner. “You... found another bedroom.”
“Not only a bedroom, but there a maaattress in here!” Pinkie zoomed up to the bed, and gently pressed against the ruined thing a few times. “I... think the springs need a doctor.”
“I think this floor needs an entire hospital wing to itself,” Celestia muttered as she looked around the bare stone walls of the bedroom. How could there be such a ruined area inside the castle that she was currently living in? More than that, how could she have let it get this bad? Did it compromise the structural integrity of the rest of the place? She’d have to send for an engineer or twenty to make sure the castle wasn’t just standing due to habit.
Pinkie circled the bed, continuing to watch the archaic piece of furniture. She was a predator; it her prey. Lowering herself, she growled and pounced on the bed, determined to make the victim her new trampoline. However, instead of the satisfying bounce that the pony was most definitely expecting, she crashed through the mattress, falling straight through to the floor. Blinking, Pinkie looked at her legs and found that she was left with her body sticking out of the top of the mattress and her legs sticking out of the bottom.
Celestia couldn't hide her snicker.
Pinkie looked down at the hole she created. “Hmm,” she hummed to herself, looking at the open floor around the bed, then back at the hole. She then looked to Celestia, then to the floor, then finally back to the hole again. Whatever Pinkie was planning on trying to do, it would have to be something creative. With every single movement that the mare made, she simply got even more stuck in her little prison. Hopefully the springs weren’t actually hurting her legs or sides any.
“Having a problem?” Celestia asked as she took a few steps forward, coming right up against the bed.
“Nope! Nope! Nuh-uh!” Pinkie said as she wiggled a little bit more under the confinement of the prison. “This is... exactly what... I planned... to do...”
She near at the corner of the bed and placed her hooves on one of the bedposts, resting her head on top of them. “I see. And what was it, exactly, that you were trying to do?”
“I was... trying to... uhh...” Pinkie squirmed a little bit more before stopping her struggles and looking at Celestia. “Make you laugh?”
She giggled lightly, still gazing at the silly pony trapped in the bed. “If that is what you were intending, then I assure you you definitely succeeded.”
Pinkie looked at her and giggled lightly. “Good. Can you get me out then? I'm a teensy bit stuck.”
“Only if you say you're sorry.” Celestia said with a wink.
Pinkie cocked her head. “Sorry for what?”
“Say you're sorry for implying I’m that desperate for company in bed.”
Pinkie gasped, instantly attempting to come over to Celestia's side. However, Pinkie stayed exactly where she was. If anything, she got a little more stuck. “Celly-Belly! I would never say that you were a loosie goosie!”
She tried to keep her face straight, but Celestia couldn’t help but to sputter at those words. “I'm.... I'm what?”
“Loosie goosie! You never heard of the phrase?”
Celestia coughed a few times, shaking her head. “I most certainly have not.”
“Hmm. Well, you aren't one! I know, because I know a few that are, like this one time, I saw Rainbow Dash—”
“Pinkie Pie,” Celestia closed her eyes as she interrupted. “Truly, I would rather not know.”
“Okie!” Pinkie replied with a wide smile. “Sooo... umm... sorry for kinda sorta not really calling you easy peasy pony. Now can you help me get out of here? It's really cramped and everything and my knee has an ichy that I can’t reachy.”
Celestia smiled and, with a nod, used her magic to tug at the mare. As soon as she wrapped her magical aura around Pinkie, the mare burst out into incredibly loud laughter. “Sorry,” Celestia grunted, still pulling on Pinkie. Twisting and turning in her desperate attempts to both get out of the mattress and Celestia's grip, Pinkie squealed and hollered. The harder Celestia tugged, the more that Pinkie laughed, until nothing but loud gasps of laughter filled the air. Though, considering how much Pinkie was laughing, Celestia's wasn't sure which was worse for the mare at this point: the confines of the mattress or the constant tickles of her magic. She considered it punishment for the earlier comments, and left it at that.
With a final tug, Celestia plucked Pinkie out of the mattress. However, the pull was much stronger than she intended it to be, for as soon as Pinkie popped out, she soared through the air towards Celestia. Fortunately for Pinkie, though not quite as much for herself, Pinkie landed right on top of the princess, the two yelping at the impact. With a twist and a tumble, the two collapsed in a heap.
The two ponies were left panting together, Celestia actually a little exhausted from the ordeal. That wasn't even mentioning how exciting it was to get the wind knocked out of her due to a hefty pony projectile. Note to self, practice magic more often. From on top of her, Pinkie was desperately trying to get air back into her lungs after the long spouting laughter. Unlike Celestia though, Pinkie seemed satisfied with the results. “Thanks... thanks for catching me, Princess,” she panted as she laid her head on Celestia's chest.
Nodding, Celestia merely lay there on her back, patting Pinkie's back with a forehoof. “It... it was nothing, Pinkie Pie. Are you alright?”
“Yeppies!” Pinkie closed her eyes, squeeing a little bit in excitement. After staying there for a few seconds, she snuggled her head into Celestia's chest more. “Hey Celestia, did you know that you are super duper comfy?”
“That's nice, Pinkie. The floor is not though,” Celestia muttered as she squirmed from under Pinkie Pie. Apparently catching the hint, Pinkie rolled away and jumped up, allowing both of them to get back onto their own hooves. Despite the little bout of embarrassment—a bout that Celestia would make sure to remind Pinkie never to repeat to anypony—their little adventure into the depths of the castle had been interesting. Granted, both needed at least one shower to wash off the various amount of dust and muck that that gotten on their coats, but interesting nonetheless.
Still, it was an adventure that Celestia had had quite enough of. Stomach quietly growling, she motioned toward the door with her head. “Pinkie, how about we get out of here and see if we can get some lunch, hmm?”
Hopping up to her side, Pinkie looked at her and nodded. “Okie Dokie! Sounds good!”
“Good, please follow me.” Celestia replied as she turned toward the door. If her internal compass was anything to go by, it was only a hallway or two until the two of them got back to the main stairwell. From there, it was an annoyingly long trek up the several flights of stairs until they got to the main level.
Just as Celestia stepped into the hallway, Pinkie was there next to her, bouncing around as if nothing had happened. “I had fun adventure, Princess! Did you have fun? Huh? Did ya did ya did ya?”
Celestia sighed. “I suppose it…” she trailed off. Thinking back at the… adventure, she stopped in the hallway. Even if it was not wrought with danger and treasure like books tended to promote, the two had battled many obstacles and explored areas that nopony had seen in many years. Sure, the two of them less battled their way through the pitfalls and more bumbled their way through them—the whole mattress incident along with the closet filled with three dozen primed bear traps fresh on her mind—but in the end, it was an adventure. An entertaining adventure.
“Umm… did ya?” Pinkie asked again.
Celestia turned to Pinkie and nodded. “I did indeed, Pinkie Pie.”
“Good! Because I'm looking forward to tomorrow night!”
“Tomorrow night?” Celestia stayed planted where she was, watching as Pinkie jumped off into the distance. Shaking her head rapidly, Celestia trotted up to Pinkie and said, “What do you mean by that?”
“Hmm?” Pinkie kept on hopping. Sideways now. “Well, after lunch, I have lots of things to do and places to see and knick knacks to pick up so I can go back home with presents for everypony in Ponyville, but tomorrow night I'm ready to do something else!”
“I see...” Celestia trailed off. She turned to her right, climbing the stairs they had just arrived to. “I believe I can come up with something.”
“Then it's a date! Last one upstairs is a rotten potato in a hammock!” With that, Pinkie zoomed up the stairs, leaving nothing but dust in her wake. Celestia debated walking up to a servant and asking what the heck was up with the dust problem in the castle, but Pinkie already had a pretty large head start on her. Instead, she merely shook her head, and proceeded to climb the stairs to join her guest.
I wanted to get this published on Sunday. I'm three days late.
Just goes to show I suck at keeping on schedule. 
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Not really sure but you might be overdoing it a little bit with Pinkie.
Aside from that, I think you're doing a good job in getting Celly warmed up with Pinkie.
Something seems to be missing here.
There's a point when they're talking about the secret rooms when you skip one of Celestia's lines. You should probably check that.
5671212 5671244 Curse you import from gdocs! I even went over the story once and I still missed this import fail!
Anyway, this was the missing line.
“Pinkie Pie, have you ever known my student to pass up a good book to go do anything that might be considered exciting?”
For a second I thought you might be implying something with the itchy knee (really close to pinchy which is of course danger) but I guess not this time.
Wow the dungeon of lame huh?
Still, though it had Pinkie so
5670724 Overdoing it in what way? This isn't me saying you're wrong, I just want to know so I can get better
5672242 Nah, I'm keeping this story free of any weird memes... I think. Either that or I'm not. Not sure which.
5672512 It wasn't a dungeon! It was an old section of the castle.
Of course, you getting that impression meant I done goofed.
5680202
I just think Pinkie is too hyperactive, even for her.
Sure she's random and very fast at times. But that's just it. She is quick at times not all the time.
Also I think she could have been a little bit more respectful towards Celly. Not much, but a little bit.
But that's just my personally preferred balance for her behaviour.