It was another Sunday, and I woke up feeling like wearing something fancy for the day, and I was feeling a slight nip in the air too. It didn’t take long for me to figure out my plan for that, or to grab the appropriate dress, shoes, and light winter pieces.

After a nice, relaxing, scalding hot shower, during which I almost fell back asleep, it was time to dry off and get dressed. The first visible layer I put on was a pair of black thermal tights with lacy purple lines along the sides, followed by a similar long sleeve top. Both pieces were smooth and fit me perfectly; snug, comfortable, and warm. They were also thin enough that they didn’t get in the way of putting on Victory or the Ember Celica.

Once I was fully dressed, I looked at myself in the defogged mirror. “I look really good,” I said to myself. A moment later, I snapped out of the trance. “Come on, Yang. No time to admire yourself. You don’t have all day. Actually, you do, but you shouldn’t tell anyone.”

Finally, I left the bathroom and went downstairs to make my breakfast: an omelette with cheese and leftover burnt ends in it. As I was fixing it and some hash browns to my liking, I marvelled at the simple concept of leftover burnt ends. It was similar to the idea of too much bacon, enough firepower, buying only one thing at the grocery store, or ugly kittens: practically impossible (except for ugly kittens, which were straight up impossible).

As I took my breakfast the short way to the bar, I heard a knock on the front door. “Who could it be?” After setting the plate down back in the kitchen, I opened the door and saw Celestia standing there. “Hello, Celestia.”

“Good morning, Yang,” Celestia cordially responded. “May I come in?”

“Of course.” After Celestia came in, I closed the door. “Can I get you anything?”

The Solar Princess sniffed the air for a bit. “Whatever it is that smells so good. What is it?”

“I’ll make one for you. The seats at the bar are open.”

“Thanks.”

I quickly set to work on making another omelette and hash browns. As I did that, I realized that if I washed the used dishes myself, I would get my sleeves wet, which I didn’t want, even if I could flash dry them with my fire magic. During a free moment, I picked up a notepad, wrote out a little note/idea, folded it up, and put it under the right shoulder of my dress.

It didn’t take too long to make an omelette with the extra miraculous extra leftover burnt ends, and a serving of hash browns soon joined it on a plate. Once everything was good to go and taken care of, I took it and my serving out to my guest, the two of us on opposite sides of the bar. “So, what brings you out here, Celestia?”

“Honestly, I just want to talk to someone,” Celestia answered before taking a small bite of her omelette. “Mmmm, that’s good.” After swallowing, she continued. “I have some things I want to talk about and get out of my system, but I feel like anypony I talk to would try to appease and assuage more than help me. Even the royal counselors do that occasionally, not that I have the heart to tell them that.”

“Luna?”

“Too close for comfort, especially with her going through my older memories. You, on the other hoof, treat me like almost any other pony. You seem to put my royal status as a lower priority than, well, me, and I appreciate that."

"Hmm." I let the silence linger while we enjoyed our breakfast. After half of my omelette was gone, I picked the conversation back up. "What do you want to talk about?"

Celestia thought for a bit over another bite of omelette. "I'm not sure where to start, really."

"Is there anything that's bugging you or stressing you out? I'm sure it's not the nobles."

"Fancy and Fleur are finding candidates to fill in the gaps left by Twilight's call. As much as I want to get involved in the search, I'm afraid that would taint the process and results. Have you ever felt like you get too much respect, Yang? That everypony's walking on eggshells, lest they do something to invoke your wrath?"

"Honestly, no. At least not in Ponyville." I took a bite of hash browns to buy a moment to think. "Out of town, yeah, I guess, but I don't get out all that often. Mostly just when there's trouble to settle or something big going on."

"I just want to be treated normally, or at least with a little less respect. Certainly cut back on the grovelling at my hooves. Let a few eggshells get crushed from time to time. I can handle insults, threats, and messes. Is that too much to ask?"

"Hmm. You know what I think a good start would be?"

"What?"

I reached up to Celestia's head and plucked off the tiara. “Take the regalia off. Those are your work clothes, not your relaxation clothes.”

Celestia picked the tiara up and looked it over. “I forgot I even put this on today. Are you saying I work too much?”

“Maybe you do. Maybe Luna does too. Maybe you two could take both Sunday and Monday off together. Look into a hobby, or something.”

“That does sound nice. . .”

“Anything else bugging you? I’ll listen.”

Celestia didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she went back to her food, and I took that as my cue to finish mine as well. Even after she finished her meal, she was quiet. It wasn’t until I came back from putting the dirty dishes in the kitchen that she spoke again, her tone much more somber. “I’m worried. You’ve already beaten six of the evils Luna predicted. There’s three more sealed ones coming back soon and we don’t know anything about the last one. Not knowing anything is. . . How do you deal with it? Not knowing anything about these fights you’re going to be in?”

“You really want to know how I handle not knowing?” At Celestia’s nod, I continued. “I run the Carne Den. I take spa trips. I exercise. I practice with my magic. I have fun trying on clothes. That last one’s a more recent development.”

“Seriously, Yang.”

It was time to talk serious, as per request. “Celestia, I’ve gotten into multiple fights with no information ahead of time. I just deal with them as they happen, and I always hope that each fight is the last one. Maybe everything I do is a distraction from not knowing what’s coming up, but at least it’s better than worrying about not knowing what will happen.”

“What good does distraction do against not knowing? Before you showed up and got pulled into the meeting with the nobles the first time, I was unaware of their many abuses of rank, title, and power. I could have looked into what they were doing, but I was distracted, and didn’t notice any of it.”

“What was distracting you, then? The daily court sessions? Spending time with Luna? Reading legal stuff in your study? Staying in contact with your fellow leaders and other important people? Enjoying whatever drink you like after a long day? Sleep? Celestia, you’ve already got a lot going on, and Luna’s helping with what we don’t know.”

“Yang-”

I was feeling incensed and kept going. “There’s a lot I don’t know that I’d like to know too. I want to know what’s happening back on Earth. I want to know how my disappearance is affecting the family and friends I left behind. I want to know if there’s a way back, and what that might entail. I want to know a lot of things, Celestia, but those things I listed? I can only imagine and wonder what the answers could be. For all I know, the mere act of sending me here could have destroyed everything and there’s only eight instead of nine planets orbiting the sun now. I could spend weeks coming up with possibilities, but I don’t, because I know there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“These are MY memories, Yang. I should be able to remember them, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember them!”

“Then stop trying! If every attempt fails, and you know every attempt will fail, why are you still trying? We know that something hit your memories before they were created. Somehow. Just trust Luna to figure it out.”

“I don’t want her to tire herself out going through my memories.”

“Or do you just not want her in there?” Celestia stopped for a moment and I lowered my tone. “Celestia, you can’t and shouldn’t do everything. You make time to be with Luna as sisters, for her sake, right?” My wild guess yielded an affirmative nod. “Then let her help you. Let her do what she’s doing. She’s trying to find the information we need that’s been locked up in here.” I tapped the side of Celestia’s head to emphasize the point. “Just relax. Grab some bits, go out for a day on the town, forget about governing for a bit. The world won’t turn into a gibbering mess if you take some time for yourself.”

“I have responsibilities, Yang.”

“As long as you do what you need to do with the sun at the right time, I don’t think anybody will care. If they do, that’s their problem, not yours. If you’re worried about how it would look, think about where you are now: sitting at a bar in a closed restaurant, tiara off, and it’s not even noon. You’ve had an omelette with authentic leftover burnt ends in it. And it’s just the two of us here. Seriously. Just take some extra time off. The world’s not going to burn down because of that.”

“But what if it does?”

“Then deal with it if it does. Figure out what went wrong, and fix the problem.” I sighed and let my emotions cool down a bit. “You know, when I realized I was going to be a fill-in counselor for you, I imagined you laying down on my bed as I sat next to it with a clipboard. You would break down in tears over something, I would help you figure it out, we would exchange hugs, and things would be better.”

“And here we are, just talking it out at your bar.” A smile graced Celestia’s face. “Maybe I could have a nice, cozy bar built in the counselors’ offices, have them learn some bartending stuff, and do the counseling that way. I have enough bits of my own to pay for it all without dipping into any other funds, after all.”

“That’s the spirit, Celestia.”

For a while, we stayed there, talked castle renovation, and I made a light lunch for us as well. In addition to the bars for counseling use, other changes to make the place feel more comfortable came up. I kept myself out of the castle operation policy changes that she suggested, on the grounds that since I wasn’t there, I didn’t know what changes would work best or flop.

Finally, as things were dying down, it was time. “One more thing, Princess.” I pulled the paper out from my shoulder, unfolded it, wrote a few more things down, and gave it to Celestia. “Today’s services aren’t free.”

She scrutinized the ticket. “Food? Counselling? Interior design consultation? Pun delivery fees? Is this a joke?” she asked with clearly feigned outrage.

“Nope. As payment for services rendered, you will properly wash all the dirty dishes for me, and put them away.” I put on a smirk. “You wouldn’t want your image to be marred by skipping out on a bill at a restaurant, now would you?”

“Hmm. I concede.” After levitating all her regalia off of her and setting it on some empty stools, Celestia followed me to the kitchen. “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit slow. It’s been, well, centuries since I’ve washed any dishes myself.”

“Just follow my directions, then.”

Celestia did a good job washing the dishes and putting them away. As I watched her work and find a rhythm, I saw her relax just a bit. It looked like she would have relaxed a bit more, were it not for the fact that she ran out of dishes to clean.

"That was surprisingly nice," Celestia noted after the dishes and utensils were put away. "May I do it again sometime?"

"You want to become a dish washer here?"

"It was. . . Relaxing. I only had to think about the dishes in front of me. Nothing about how one word could be taken out of context, or whether or not I'd have to have someone thrown out. I really liked it. Do you have any openings?"

"You're serious. You really want to do this?"

"I can disguise myself." With a flash of magic, Celestia turned into a normal looking white pegasus with a pink mane and tail, her cutie mark now bearing a few clouds. "Hi, I'm Sunny Skies. Can I apply for a job washing dishes on Mondays here?"

I looked at Celestia for a bit before answering. "Well, I don't know. You've got me in a confusing spot, Celestia. On one hand, you've found something relaxing to do. On the other hand, I don't know if that one's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"I can't have my dishwasher running off to take care of an emergency when it comes up. I already do that from time to time, and I want it to only be me."

Celestia gave a brief pout before flashing back to normal. "I suppose I can understand that."

As she started putting her regalia back on, I responded. "Are model kits a thing here? You could collect and build those if you wanted."

"I'll consider it. I suppose I'll take my leave, then. It's been a productive day, Yang. Thank you."

"I'll see you next time, then." We waved to each other before Celestia teleported away, and I went to the office. There were a few things I needed to take care of for the Carne Den that I didn't get to on Saturday night, thanks to an extended fashion break.

Author's Notes:

The power of friendship prevails yet again, or at least lets things come out a bit better than before.