You've got to be kidding...
Twilight was in the zone.
The zone.
She was halfway through the overwhelming pile of paperwork she’d been assigned for the day, and it was only noon. She was ahead of schedule, one of the paramount and most important reasons for this being her focus. The newest princess of Equestria’s talent in the art of immense concentration not only allowed for her to completely immerse herself in her work, but also to let everything around her melt into an indistinguishable blur, the goal of overcoming the threatening pile of paperwork before her becoming her sole focal point.
In layman terms: she ignored everything.
No heed was taken to the intense growling of her stomach, or the dry throat she had from drinking nothing but hot coffee since this morning. She could’ve sworn she heard knocking at the door, and perhaps even a certain baby dragon expressing his worry over her before giving up and stomping away, but she was so intent on her job that nothing could distract her. Well, almost nothing. There was just one thing.
She had to pee.
That urge, that pressure on her bladder that made her fidget with every paper completed. She could only ignore it for so long before she threw down her quill, dropped her current paper on the top of the stack and made a speedy dash to the bathroom.
Stupid coffee!
She soon returned, feeling much better after relieving herself. She glanced at the wall clock, curious but almost not wanting to know how much time she’d spent in the bathroom.
Two minutes. She blinked. Not bad, actually.
She sat down at her desk, straightened her stack of papers, and set them back down. Closing her eyes and humming to herself, she went to pick up her quill-
She peeked an eye open. Her quill wasn’t there.
She lifted her papers, checking first under the completed ones and then the unfinished stack.
“Hmph,” she harrumphed. She checked the rug under her desk, thinking she may have dropped it.
No such luck.
While she was down there, she decided to look under her chair, and then behind the desk, the sides of the desk, the area behind her chair…
She paused her searching to take a look at the clock. The princess sighed. She had just wasted five whole minutes looking for an easily replaceable feather. She returned to her position on the chair and took a deep breath. Then, finally relaxed, she opened her desk drawer and pulled out her box of new quills.
Upon seeing the contents, she groaned. The box was empty.
Again, she returned to the task of searching for the one she had been using before this mini-catastrophe had befallen her. She began looking in more unlikely places than before, including, but not limited to: underneath the flower pot, inside the flowerpot, in her coffee mug, the spot where she was sitting, on a nearby window sill, inside a drawer, in the flowerpot again…
The thought crossed her mind that maybe she could just go to the supply office and get another box. But when her eyes drifted across the clock, she knew that that would take much too long. She wanted to be done with her paperwork before lunch, and meandering around the castle would get her nowhere.
Not only that, but long-distance teleportation had the potential to set off a multitude of alarms. She didn’t want to have to explain to a squadron of guards that, no, she wasn’t in danger, that nopony had to check her pulse, blood, or urine, and that she had simply needed a quill and had teleported to the supply office to get one. What? Well, perhaps the actions taken may be a bit uncharacteristic for a princess so bent on rules and regulations, but- What? Changeling? No!
Twilight shook her head. What was she doing? She needed to find her quill, and more importantly, get back to work.
As time passed, and she still did not have her quill, she grew more and more agitated. After awhile, the thought began to fester in her mind that if she had just gone and gotten another box of quills, she’d be back by now and possibly almost done. However, she’d already thrown in her chips, and needed, absolutely needed to find this darned feather-
“Hey, Twilight-”
“What?” Twilight lashed out, whipping around to face the intruder. There little Spike stood in her doorway, arms shaking, holding a small box.
He blinked, his surprised, wide eyes mimicking the expression of one who had just been stabbed.“I- I saw that you were almost out of quills earlier, so I went to go pick some up…” He held out the box, which had a picture of an eggshell-white feather and was labeled ‘quills.’ “H-here you go… Sorry to disturb you.”
Twilight, who had been simmering in her anger for the past fifteen minutes, suddenly felt herself dipped into an icy cold bath of shame. “Spike, I-”
“No, no, it’s okay.” He turned his head away. “I should’ve known better than to bother you while you’re working.”
The small dragon set the box of quills down on his older sister’s rug, and then scampered away with his tail between his legs. Twilight flew to the door to go after him, but by then he was out of sight and could have gone either way down the hall.
Begrudgingly, the alicorn princess levitated the new box over to her desk, taking the old one and throwing it a bit forcefully into the waste bin. She opened up the pack of quills, dipped one of the tips in the inkwell, and began writing.
By the time she had gotten done with the first packet, she was starting to get back into the flow of things. She still felt awfully guilty about what she’d done to Spike, and a lingering frustration from the past half hour hung about her head, but she decided that she would make it up to her number-one assistant by taking him out for ice cream at his favorite ice cream parlor. And, who knew, maybe a good time with one of her lifelong friends would do her some good as well.
She levitated the first packet up and off the pile of incomplete paperwork, glad to be that much closer to freedom. She readied herself, and began to read the first few lines of the next packet when-
There sat her quill.
She’d set her paper down on top of her quill. And of all the places she looked…
Suddenly, the paper she was holding fell, knocking over the inkwell, and staining the top left corner of her desk and a good portion of the bottom of the pile of finished paperwork.
That day, all of Equestria heard the frustrated princess.