Queen for One Less Day
- Story by Thom Zahler, Art by Andy Price
Well considering she raises it, that's not surprising.
"Princess Celestia disguises herself to live amongst ordinary ponies for a day. What she learns about her subjects, and herself, will surprise her!"
This issue provides examples of:
- An Aesop: No matter how powerful you are, you can't be everywhere at the same time to resolve all problems in the world. You can only pass on your knowledge and skills to others to help resolve said problems that you yourself are unable to be at.
- Artifact of Doom: The amulet Celestia uses to take on her disguised form is said have "old changeling magic", and can corrupt the wearer if they aren't strong enough to resist it.
- Brought Down to Normal: Celestia uses an amulet to shape-shift herself into a pegasus in order to blend in with the other ponies. When Scarlet Petal steals it, Celestia is trapped in her pegasus form.
- Call-Back: When Celestia tries to convince Twilight of her identity, she mentions knowing about Twilight's travels through time and defeat of Tirek, along with sending her to Ponyville, making her a princess and officiating her brother's wedding.
- The Cameo: When Celestia arrives in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, Rarity and Maud Pie can briefly be seen.
- Continuity Nod: The changeling amulet includes an acorn in its design, referencing the changelings' origin story from FIENDship is Magic.
- Evil Aunt: Scarlet Petal and Winter Comet's aunt, Shadowfall, is an abusive old mare who forces them to steal for her. According to Scarlet Petal, Shadowfall isn't really their blood relative at all, just somepony who thought she could make use of them.
- The Fagin: Auntie Shadowfall is a textbook take on the trope — she takes in orphaned children and forces them to steal for her in exchange for room and board, and keeps most of the proceeds for herself.
- Foreshadowing: There are books in Celestia's room with the titles "So You Wanna Be An Actor" and "Acting for Idiots". "Horse Play" (which aired a week after this issue was released) revealed that Celestia has had a long-held dream of acting in a play.
- Furry Reminder: While at a cafe, the disguised Celestia can be seen lapping at her coffee like a real-life horse.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: Shadowfall briefly holds Winter Comet hostage, demanding the amulet in return for him.
- King Incognito: Princess Celestia has a yearly tradition where she uses an amulet to shape-shift herself into an ordinary pony to walk among her subjects all over Equestria.
- Noodle Incident: In order to convince Twilight that Celestia is who she claims she is, she tells her about a certain incident only they know about.Celestia: I know what happened the first time you cast the Spell of Promethea!
Twilight Sparkle: (shocked) What? You can't! No one knows that!
Celestia: I told you I'd never tell anypony. And I haven't.
Twilight Sparkle: You don't know.
(Celestia whispers something to Twilight, who gets an incredibly embarrassed expression)
Twilight Sparkle: This is Princess Celestia and she needs our help.
- Something Only They Would Say: Celestia convinces Twilight of her identity by bringing up Twilight's first attempt to cast the "Spell of Promethea".
- Street Urchin: Scarlet Petal and Winter Comet, a pair of orphaned pickpockets. They are forced to steal from others by Shadowfall.
- Tempting Fate: When Scarlet Petal returns the magic amulet back to (disguised) Celestia, Shadowfall rages that she made a huge mistake that will cost her dearly. She rants about how Scarlet Petal is in so much trouble that nopony is going to help her now, not even Princess Celestia. Enter Celestia, who uses the amulet to revert back to her Alicorn form and is more than irritated. Cue Shadowfall realizing how bad she screwed herself over.
- Visual Pun: Celestia's disguised form has a cutie mark of a sun with a masquerade-style eye mask over it.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The amulet grants the ability to take on the shape of another person, which is retained even if the amulet is removed; without it, however, the shapeshifted person cannot change back.
