Transparency: Q. Mint Jewelip

Sleep Dep smiled as she lay back upon a plush couch, sipping a frosty drink. Normally, she would have been sitting on a grungy cushion in some weather worn building on the outskirts of town, sipping another coffee and planning how best to harvest love... but there were apparently benefits to a successful governmental takeover.

Deep Thought sat at a nearby table, shaking his head in disbelief, as he watched Princess Celestia, FORMER Princess Celestia, pressing an inked hoof on form after form as the clerk continued to stamp and sign them in a dull haze of shock.

Recon smiled into her pet stallion's neck, belly straining against the platters of cookies and cakes she's taken up as a stress response to being so close to Celestia.

Celestia sighed a resigned, though slightly humored sigh as she continued flitting through the forms placed before her.

Luna couldn't stop smirking.

-~oOo~-

Deep Thought's eyes flitted over the stack of forms, idly filling in blanks and checking boxes. Ah.... Paperwork. At the end of the day, win or lose, party or peril, ~paperwork~ was the one unassailable force of the universe that Deep Thought could rely upon. Without fear, no matter what happened, there would always be paperwork... likely in triplicate if the ponies had anything to say about it. In septuplicate if the nobles got their way..... always being so wasteful; nobles.

Smirking to himself, Deep Thought dipped his quill and continued checking boxes and filling in blanks, all in an effort to make sure things ran smoothly.

Meanwhile, across the table from him, in the disguise of a cream colored mare with a shock of nearly neon orange mane, Mem watched her hivemate with the impatience gained from having years of memories dumped into her head on a regular basis... and still not having the experience to figure out exactly how they were currently sitting in the royal throne room, filling out paperwork and, as Recon had evidenced, eating a copious amount of baked goods.

Things should not have worked out that way. Mem knew there had to have been a trick or a hidden threat she had missed. There had to have been some kind of veiled doom that the Princesses simply couldn't afford to chance. Her queen must have known something, ~DONE~ something to keep them in line. There was just no possible way that Sleep Dep had simply walked in, told Celestia to surrender, avoided the ancient alicorn's ire and ended up ruling Equestria.

And yet, here they were: sitting on plush cushions, filling out paperwork, playing tag in the gardens, eating pastries, and slowly developing a nervous tick from the paradox level chaos that allowed a hive of changelings to take over Equestria.

Admittedly, that last one was mostly her own. Mem was nothing, if not logical.

And so Mem watched for a few more moments before dropping her disguise, placing a hole-ridden hoof upon the topmost page, and forcing Deep to raise his eyes and address her. "How?"

Deep considered for a moment, a slight smile creeping onto his elegant pony features. "Sleep's brilliant, in her own way. No one has ever just walked in, asked for an audience, and demanded surrender from Princess Celestia. No one would have ever believed anyone stupid enough to try."

"And she did... yes, but HOW did it work out? You can't tell me Celestia just gave up Equestria to her."

"No... not exactly. There was a little more to it than that." Deep chuckled quietly as he reached for a cup of esspresso, courtesy of the royal attendant, Kibitz.

"Deep, out with it."

Deep raised his eyebrow as he swallowed and nodded his thanks to the elderly unicorn before turning back to Mem and smiling. "We spiked her tea."

"She's an immortal alicorn, with enough power to crush mountains and boil the oceans, with the tactical know-how to defend her nation by serving breakfast for all meals of the day. There's no way she'd be fool enough to miss poison in her tea." Mem snarked while snapping up a croissant from a nearby tray.

Deep crossed his hooves patiently, leaning his chin upon them as he smiled faintly. "Nope. No chance of that."

"So what do you mean you spiked her tea?!?"

"We spiked her tea."

"WITH WHAT?!?"

Deep Thought smiled as he lit his horn and a faintly glowing scene began to play out before him. "With tea."

-~oOo~-

***Two hours before the 'invasion***

Relay was darting between buildings when she happened to spot a cart that had been hauling goods to and from the castle kitchen pausing to pick up a load of goods.

Tilting her head and blinking, the simple order of "tell Deep what kind of tea Celestia drinks" echoed in her mind.

The cart was from the royal kitchens.

Celestia was well known for her habit of drinking tea.

The cart was getting dry goods from a storehouse.

The loader was carting a wooden barrel with the royal seal onto the cart with a label of "Royal Reserve."

Relay grinned and flitted down, waited for the cart to start moving, and opened the barrel to steal a hoofful of the tea, before flitting off to find Deep.

Mem stared at the image of Relay flitting off like a mad-mare with a tiny cloud of tea dust in her wake, "AND?"

Deep smiled again, reaching for another form as he took a sip of his espresso before looking up at her from under his brows, "And she doesn't drink tea."

Mem blinked.

"She drinks thrice decanted espresso and has the cook enchant it to look and smell like tea so she can keep up appearances."

Mem blinked again.

"So I had Mine steal some bits while he was mingling, bought up all the espresso in the city, sent the shopkeeps on vacation, flipped her coffee for tea, and made sure to make enough noise to get the 'royal reserve' through without much notice."

"But...." Mem's thoughts were grinding to a bloody halt.

"But what, Mem?"

"But... but.... We took over by serving Celestia TEA?"

Deep smiled, indulgently, "That, and I may have told her sister about the whole thing and mentioned that Celestia was joking at the local bar while disguised, about her 'ever growing full moon.'" He chuckled, "Never underestimate the power of sibling rivalry."