"Time to wake up, sister. Our work is complete for the night."

Princess Luna pulled back the curtain on the window of her older sister's room and left, closing the door swiftly but quietly behind her. With a large yawn, Celestia began to stir. Yesterday was extremely exhausting for her. A day full of greeting ponies, pushovers, troublemakers, several problems of all kinds involving paperwork... Exhausting. As she stretched, a couple sheets fell off the side of the bed. With a groan, she forced her upper body upright and slowly inched toward the floor with her lower.

She was still drowzy. Once she was on all fours, she focused on the fallen sheets with her magic. Magic, first thing in the morning... For the goddess, it was a possible sign of worse things to come. Her aura was slightly late to react, but after a few seconds, the bed was straightened out and appeared as if nothing ever happened. Small smile forming across her face, the elegant princess turned and stumbled toward the bedroom door. Despite being up for almost two minutes now, her function was still not completely booted up.

Today was going to be a long day...

Six Magic Mercenaries

By Blazing_Mane01

The sun only now rose through Twilight Sparkle's window, nearly thirty minutes late. Also relunctant to wake up at once, the purple mare glanced at her clock. Six-thirty...

She bounced. Six-thirty!? She was supposed to be up half an hour ago! And even then, she barely had enough time to organize for the Grand Galloping Gala! Her schedule was thrown way off... schedule. Thus, the princess's student quickly began to panic.

"Spike! Wake up! It's an emergency!"

Sound asleep up to that second, the baby dragon jumped nearly instantaneously, throwing the balance of his little bed all toward one side, causing it to flip out from the young assistant and over him, now resting on what was resting on it. Spike stood up, with the bed still on his head. "What!? What's going on?"

" 'What's going on?' 'WHAT"S GOING ON!?' Spike, look at the time!!"

Rubbing his tired eyes, Spike removed the bed from his face and focused on the numbers posted on the electronic appliance. "It's six-thirty."

"Spike, the Grand Galloping Gala is today! I was supposed to be getting ready half an hour ago! Oh... This isn't good..."

Hyper-organized Twilight Sparkle began to pace rather quickly around the table in the center of her dwelling, murmuring to herself of what she could skip over, and then thinking of the many ways she'd have to prepare afterward. She had until seven to meet her friends at the train station. With so little time to do so much, even Spike was getting a headache from the commotion the pony was making.

"Oh, Twilight, it's not that big a deal. Just go over as you are. You're fine."

In response, the lavender pony raised her head and looked to the right side of Golden Oaks Library. Her attention, Spike guessed internally, was captured by the big book that contained the Elements of Harmony. Staring at it for a short moment, she smiled and began to approach the bookcase. Her intentions were unknown to Spike, and the young assistant attempted so see past her in curiousity, but his colorful guardian was so strategically placed to block ninety percent of what she was doing. She was searching for a book other than the Elements of Harmony, it seemed.

But what she got down instead were two maps. Wow, and having spent all his life as Twilight's assistant, he didn't see that coming. This aroused a question in his young mind.

"I thought you knew how to get to the train station?"

In response, the purple pony looked up, but only for a second. "No, Spike. I gotta figure out the fastest route to it, that's all."

Confused, the baby dragon replied, "Isn't it just down the road?"

Twilight gasped. "You're right! And why didn't I think of that!?"

Throwing random things into a saddlebag, the hyper-organized pony charged out the door without a seond thought or a goodbye. Spike, slightly irritated with his pony guardian, put the bed upright on the floor next to Twilight's, grabbed a corner of the sheet, and lunged into the comfort of the basket-like structure, blanket neatly placed over and under him; a trick he learned long ago. Once comfy, the dragon murmured to himself, "It's six-thirty..."

"Are you okay, sister?"

Princess Celestia only moaned and nodded, holding a mug of dark liquid in her gold aura. Her eyelids refused to fully open, despite even the caffeeine's best efforts to stimulate her system. Once the princess stared at the drink for a shot more time, she finally got up and proceeded toward the restroom. "I'm fine, Luna... Just need to --" Her sentence was cut off by a mighty yawn. "--To wake up..."

Shutting the door behind her, Princess Celestia turned the faucet's lever to the left, and brought her head into the water. She understood yesterday was rough, but why was she this sluggish? She normally deals with that kind of shit every day; just because she had slightly more helpings on her plate shouldn't have this big an effect on the immortal mare.

She drew her face out of the running water and sighed. She then drew the towel draped across the bar suspended on the wall to her left closer to her, so that she could dry off. After she had scrubbed her face dry, she threw her head up to send her ever-flowing mane behind her.

When suddenly...

All Princess Luna heard come from the restroom was a loud smash. Instantly standing up, she launched herself over to the door and knocked rather noisily, "Princess Celestia?"

No response.

"Princess Celestia! Is everything okay in there, sister!?"

Still silence.

Luna threw the door open with her magic, to reveal an empty bathroom. Try as the little sister might, the only clue she could find as to Celestia's presence here was the hole in the wall directly across from the sink. Tears had threatened Luna at this point. There were no windows, nor were there secret doors... that she knew of. And she definitely knew Celestia wouldn't punch a chip out of the wall without a really good reason.

"Princess Celestia?"

Author's Note

This is one of my many stories, so updating it might be random. I might get to work on it, or I could get sidetracked on my other works. Just sayin'.

Feel free to check my other published stories in the meantime!