In the Late Hours
Twilight entered the small room, smiling serenely at the mare leading inside. She nodded whatever the other was saying.
"No,” Twilight started. “I think I'll be set without a wake-up notice in the morning." She smirked at the stacked luggage delivered earlier that rested before the bed. "I have a meeting tonight, and I have a good feeling it’s going to be a long one. Think I'll be taking the rest of the night getting ready."
"As you wish, princess," said the maid with a dip of her head. "If you need anything, we will, of course, be waiting for your bell."
Twilight kept her smile until the mare left, waiting until the door shut gently before giggling and prancing over to the bags waiting on the soft bed. She levitated two of the larger bags away, carelessly tossing them to one side of the room, as she pulled the small remaining case to her.
She ran a hoof over the simple but sturdy fabric, simple black canvas, before flipping her hoof under one of the brass snaps and flicking upwards.
A simple mechanism she'd built into the case activated, and the lid rose smoothly to display its contents.
Her hoof rose and ran over the silky, smooth fabric, then slowly pulled the piece out of the case. Pulling a chair over, she jumped into it before she used her hooves to pull the soft, stretchy fabric over her right back hoof, pulling until she could gently snap it over her thigh. She then straightened her leg out, cat-like, smiling at the simple pink and magenta striped sock.
She tugged a little more at the top of the item. It was getting a bit stretched out, and was looser than she liked, but it would do for tonight.
She reached forward and pulled another sock from the suitcase, pulling this one on faster, more eager now. She still hesitated as it flowed up her leg, luxuriating in the feeling as it covered her pale coat and wiggling her hoof a little to feel it flow over her limb just a moment longer.
The next two were harder, the front socks always were, but she managed it alright between her mouth and the other leg.
The next thing to come out of the case didn't only feel silky, but was actually a blend of silk, cotton, and a specialty fabric made of a certain tree from of a friend of Rarity's. Not only did this blend have remarkable stretch: it resisted normal wear and was easily kept clean.
Twilight raised her rear legs and stepped through the holes, using her hooves to pull the clinging piece over her legs, her frogs tracing the stockings as she pulled the stretchy fabric all the way up to her thighs.
She jumped out of the chair, balancing on the bed with one of her hooves as she reached back and finished pulling the panties up to her dock, smiling smugly when she glanced at the mirror in the corner of the room and wiggling her hips slightly to make her tail wave over the same pattern as her socks. The cloth was just a bit too tight for her, the bands around the legs sinking into her soft skin and creating a soft, very slight, ramp up to the rest of her thigh.
Giggling again, she gave her tail one last wag before slipping a rubber mane band onto one hoof, dipping into the suitcase and pulling a mid-barrel zip-up hoodie out, black to help her stealth mission through the castle's halls.
She slipped it on quickly before throwing her crown on her head and tossing the last thing in her case on her back before she slipped out of the room, her horn lighting and gathering the shadows to herself, a trick that Luna had taught her to sneak around more easily. The guards she slipped by either didn't notice her, or at least ignored her passing, and she made her way easily to the large central courtroom, the only place large enough to hold tonight's... activities.
Reaching the large doors, Twilight took a moment to giggle and prance in place, before shaking her wings loosely and taking a few steadying breaths, wiping every trace of expression from her muzzle. She pulled the mane-tie from her hoof and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
Pasting on a confident smirk, she placed a hoof against the small door inset to the massive ones and strode inside.
Luna barely glanced her way, over by the refreshments table that was surrounded by a protective dome. She took a last bite of one of the several dough rings orbiting her head, chewing as she walked to a place marked by some black tape on the left side of the hall, the other two donuts floating above her horn and slipping down to her forehead, Luna easily ignoring the chocolate smear down her horn.
Cadance sat directly opposite her in the square room, her eyes closed with a gentle smile on her face. Her wings were slightly spread, and she was breathing slowly, surely, calmly.
Both mares were wearing their own "Uniform" of sorts, Luna's socks and hoodie a deeper, darker reflection of Twilight's own, while Cadance had an olive green hoodie stolen from Shining Armor over her own (hopefully they weren't her brother's) set of light- and forest-green socks. Both of them also wore their tiara, the focus of what was about to happen.
And then, directly ahead of Twilight, Celestia sat on the shared throne.
She wore a hoodie that had probably been white once, but after all of the washes it had gone through it was a dingy, dim gray. Her socks, however, were newly ordered from Rarity and featured stripes of a solar yellow and a pumpkin-y orange.
She also wore a deep smirk as she stared down at her protege. "Are we ready, then?"
Twilight schooled her expression into a deep, furrowed frown.
Celestia raised a white cloth into the air in the middle of them, her horn twinkling with its signature bright golden glow. After the cloth had settled in the air, her horn went dark, signalling the end of magic use.
Twilight pulled her secret weapon from her back as the light, thin cloth floated through the air.
The pillow that Spike slept on at home.
As soon as the cloth touched the ground, there was a barrage of artillery from either side of the hall. Twilight stood resolute, letting Luna and Cadance exhaust themselves as she focused on her mentor, on the mare who sat slightly above her and grinned down.
She took three steps forward, the fluffy white pillows flying freely through the space between the two combatants, almost instinctively missing the Alicorn who strode into no-mare's land.
Celestia's already wide grin grew.
"Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?"
Twilight's grimace deepened, her eyebrows almost touching above her nose.
"I can't beat you with this pillow without getting closer."