Her nose tickled. That's how Celestia's day started.
No matter how many times she waved her hoof in front of her face, the sensation just wouldn't stop. She finally woke up, and jolted away from the sunflower that Luna was justly shoving right in her muzzle. Jokingly, the sister said, "Good morning, sister. It's that time again, as I'm sure you're aware. The last day of spring is upon us. I even prepared, and managed to coordinate my sleeping schedule to get you up bright and early."
Celestia winced at the sunflower, but managed to work on a smirk. "Ohhh, ho... Luna... You didn't have to do this."
Luna giggled, and said, "Of course I did! I know how much sunflowers mean to you. Here, have one!"
Celestia was forced into holding onto it with her magic, and gulped before bringing on a fairly convincing smile. "Oh, Luna... thanks a lot."
Luna blithely left Celestia after that interaction, giving her Highness a chance to groan to herself, and throw the flower to the floor abruptly. Stepping on it, Celestia trotted on by her dresser, and coyly mentioned to nopony specifically, "They're just flowers... They're not even my favorite!"
Walking out onto the balcony, she huffed while grabbing hold of the binoculars. "I swear... It's all because I allowed it this one year, ages ago, and afterwards, I just kept... smiling every year. Everypony brings me sunflowers now. I mean, I appreciate the gesture every once in a while, but seriously?!" She breathed, and finished, "It almost makes me sick of sunflowers, to get so many all at once... Sometimes, they're rotten, too... I hate that the most!"
At that time, she saw somepony nearby coming outside to dust off one of their rugs, and Celestia decided to cool it off. Either that, or cast a spell that would give her some privacy to vent. She used her binoculars shortly to peer in on others entering the castle down below. There was Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and everypony else. They all had sunflowers. Everyone in the whole town seemed to have a sunflower to give to her.
"Ugh," she moaned in displeasure. "This is just..."
She lowered her binoculars, and scowled down at all the ponies coming inside. Each and every single one of them had a sunflower for her.
She quickly turned around, and went to go get this day over with. The ballroom that her assistant had chosen for the occasion was filled with the sweet, reminiscent scent of sunflowers, and nothing but, because it was absolutely jam-packed with them. Celestia just glared at the sight as she entered. The worst part being her having to keep a straight face the whole time while smelling this absurd aroma. It was either that, or she merely smiled a whole lot in order to keep her frustrations from showing.
Soon enough, Celestia was caught by her student who was also all too eager to give Celestia her sunflower. Twilight brought her into the halls, which was just how Twilight usually did this. She liked to be alone with Celestia, to make double sure she really, truly liked Twilight's sunflower the most.
"Do you... love it? You love it... right?"
"Well, Twilight, I... It's..."
Celestia knew not to look Twilight in the eyes at first. If she did, Twilight was sure to find out her secret. With perfection, she sniffed, and held back a powerful shiver. She really did, truly loath that stench.
"Mmh, just smell that delightful nectar! This one has definitely outdone your last flower, Twilight."
There's a rule in friendship that even Celestia hated to break, and that was to never tell a lie. It was only after saying this that Celestia suddenly realized what she was doing, and had to retreat. Twilight asked Celestia, "You really mean it?"
Celestia froze up, unable to even speak. She just kept this amusing smile plastered acoss her face, and then finally said after a good couple of seconds went by, "Oh, of course I do! Err... Excuse me," she lied some more. "I need to... go put this in a vase, and water it! I'll be right back to the party in no time."
Twilight just stood there, a bit curious, and even more unbelieving while Celestia took off, but there was nothing she could really do except head back to the ballroom.
Meanwhile, Celestia trotted off, headed back to her room for a little bit of R&R to herself, and to possibly burn that infernal flower that Twilight had given her. Closing the door, she brought forth a forcefield around her entire room in order to ward off intruders. From outside her balcony, it would just look like she was standing still over there, gazing at her fair city.
She trotted towards the balcony, and made sure to step on the previous flower Luna had given her from this morning. "Seriously?" she asked calmly at first, but as time went on, her anger increased. "All these flowers, and not one tulip? Not one daffodil, or any daisies?"
She gritted her teeth, aggravated that such an event had gone on for as long as it had. Then, somepony somehow entered through the forcefield Celestia had brought up without her knowing. She continued, "I mean, there's just... so many sunflowers in there, and they're all going to stink up my palace! I'll be smelling like rotted sunflowers for weeks!"
She glared at the sunflower still held in her magical aura, but by now, it had already been shaken around, and tortured by her Highness's rough handling enough that it was literally going to die pretty soon here if it didn't get any water. The Princess didn't care, however, and proceeded with trying to eat the very summit, gnawing at the beheaded spawn of nature for a while. Finally, she noticed the other presence coming up right next to her, and quickly spat it out. The yellow chunk fell to the neighboring tree down below, and the Princess hastily wiped her muzzle clean of the mess she had just made.
"Discord...? How much of that did you see?"
The draconequus laughed lightly, and said, "Well, enough to know that you're aggravated with receiving so many sunflowers in one go. It's quite dreadful. The smell, that is."
"Yes," Celestia smiled. Despite the embarrassing thing that had just happened, for some reason she felt thankful that somepony was actually agreeing with her. Even if it was someone like Discord. "I just... I don't know how much I can keep this up. They all think it's a wonderful symbol of ending spring, or something... I think it's just dirtying up my ballroom, and a huge waste of a perfectly good day."
Discord sneered, and said, "Felt good to get that off your chest, huh?"
Celestia nodded, still smiling, and said, "You have no idea."
He simply stood next to her, minding his distance, and keeping his claw, and paw tucked away behind his back. Celestia glanced for a second, but then realized what it must have been. "Oh, Discord... not you, too..."
"Oh, come now, Celestia," Discord said as he kept himself still.
She just looked at him in the eyes, and said, "I couldn't possibly take another sunflower! Didn't you just see what I did to the last one?"
Discord laughed harder than before, and said, "Who said that I have a sunflower for you? All I have... is this."
He presented her a rose, crisp and as red as it could possibly get. He twirled it in front of her, watching its reflection in Celestia's widened eyes. She took it not into her magic, but by her hooves this time, and smelled it for a while. The aroma from a distance alone was nostalgic, so up close was even better, and she even closed her eyes as she took it all in. Once she was finished at last, she commented, "So much better than one of those sunflowers."
Discord nodded, and said, "I totally agree with you. Forgive me for not bringing you a bouquet this time. I thought it would be... repetitive. Seeing all those sunflowers back there, though, I'm starting to have second thoughts."
Celestia hoofed at him, and assured Discord, "No, no! You're fine... a rose was just fine, actually."
"You know," Discord then suggested. "If you were to put it right in the middle of all those sunflowers, it would send the most subtle, and quiet message to all those oblivious things in there you call subjects. Wouldn't you agree?"
Celestia hesitated at first by saying, "Oh... I don't know about that, Discord. What if somepony gets offended? Twilight's sensitive enough. I probably shouldn't have even ruined the one she just gave me, come to think of it."
Discord rolled his eyes, and commented, "Look, you can either nip this in the bud right now, or it'll happen again the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that... I think you catch my drift."
Even though she wished to make everypony happy, Celestia knew that deep down, by trying to keep up with the same, old routine, she was ultimately doomed to fail. The only pony left that would never be happy in the end was herself. So, with this in mind, the Princess reminded herself why she was even a princess in the first place, and proceeded towards the ballroom accompanied by Discord in order to set an example.
The doors from the back of the room opened, and Celestia showed herself in. Discord stayed right next to her. Everypony was a bit shocked to say the least once they all started seeing Celestia holding a beautiful rose rather than a sunflower. A few ponies even gasped, but Celestia didn't stop. Right in the middle of the heaping piles of potted sunflowers, she placed a single, solitary rose for everypony to consider. "There," she said, shushing anypony else that dared make a whisper.
"How quaint," Discord complimented her. "I think it looks lovely!"
Celestia agreed with him by nodding, and said, "I do, too."
Everypony seemed a little stunned after that. Twilight included, but in time, they'd all come to realize that Celestia had every right in doing this. In the following years, because of her bold actions, she'd not only get sunflowers at the end of every spring, but a wide variety of flowers for her to smell and admire each and every time.
However, Celestia would always look forward to receiving Discord's rose the most.
