Six coronations. Six. Six new alicorn princesses, all appearing in a single night, who would now each have their own staff, their own servants, their own royal quarters, their own royal powers and, let’s not forget, their own coronations. The consternation this caused amongst the royalty, the Houses of the Equestrian Parliament, the Guard and the Castle staff was commensurate.

In other words, everypony freaked.

Orders and paperwork flew, ponies galloped hither and thither, platoons were mobilized and immediately fell into disarray as they stumbled over each other, grown stallions screamed in hysterics like fillies, and at least one klaxon was going off somewhere in the hallways of the castle.(1) It was the fourth worst state of chaos Canterlot palace had ever been in.(2)

It was a pell-mell riot in the great rotunda when Celestia teleported in. She stood in the middle of the great open room, spread her wings, and used the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“ENOUGH.”

Ponies basically screeched to a halt all over the rotunda. There was dead silence; all that could be heard was the faint sound of the klaxon blaring somewhere in the labyrinthine depths of the castle. “Thank you,” the Princess said, keeping her voice loud enough to be heard by everypony there.

“My Little Ponies, calm yourselves. The ascendency is not a crisis! It is a proud and glorious day for Equestria. There is no reason for anypony to succumb to panic–”

She was interrupted by the sound of oddly muffled galloping hooves. Out of one of the many hallways branching off the rotunda came Princess Luna, still wearing her pajamas and bunny slippers, running as if Tirek himself were on hot on her heels. “The snails! The snails are finally here!” She shrieked, standing in the middle of the roomful of frozen ponies and spinning in a circle. “Raise the drawbridge! Lower the portcullis! Man the battlements! Fetch the Morton’s Salt! It is the end, the sticky sticky end!!” She turned and bolted off down another hall, her bunny-muffled hooves fading in the distance.

“–No rational reason for anypony to succumb to panic,” Celestia amended. “If we all keep level heads and work together and, most importantly, exercise some horse sense, everything will be fine.”

1)It was the alert klaxon marked “in event of invasion by giant snails.” Commissioned by Princess Luna at the age of six, after reading one rip-snorter of a monster story right before bedtime.

2)Preceded, in ascending order, the return of Nightmare Moon, Discord’s escape, and the time the Gryphon ambassador’s wife had been overheard saying that Princess Celestia had a fat ass.