Going on friendship quests was both time consuming and exhausting. Twilight and her friends barely got any time to themselves now that their time was cut in half. Whether it was teaching at the friendship school, responding to incidents or helping a fellow creature in need, a break was in order.
Usually Twilight would chill out at the spa with her friends when they needed to relax, but tonight would be different. She was determined to create the most mundane, non-adventure filled dinner she could manage. No incident response, no far away problems to solve, no interferences. Just a few friends chatting with each other.
But first, Twilight needed to prepare. Jogging to Spike's room, she kicked open the doors. Instinctively, Spike dove under the covers, creating a protective sanctuary of fluff around him.
"Spike!", Twilight yelled. Spike perked his head out of the covers, unamused and tired. "Twilight, it's the middle of the night, can't it wait? Celestia hasn't even raised the sun yet.", whispered Spike, hoping that maybe he could talk some sense into Twilight. But alas, he should have known better to not interfere with Twilight's schedule.
"Can it wait?", gasped Twilight. She was visibily appalled at even the suggestion. "Can it wait!? Spike if we don't start right now, then how are we going to finish it in time! We still need food, room preparations, music! We can't just start tomorrow and get it all of that done!"
"What? Why do we need a dinner?", asked Spike, genuinely confused of this sudden event planned with out of nowhere. Twilight beamed at the opportunity to explain it. "I'm glad you asked! Since we're always going on adventures and teaching all the time, I thought it would be fun to have a different way to relax for a change. Every creature is done with holidays now after Hearth's Warming Eve, but the school hasn't opened yet. It has to be tomorrow night!"
"So, what you're saying is that to stop and relax from adventures, we should both spend all night going to all the shops that aren't open?" asked Spike. "That is not what I-". Twilight stopped, nearly on the verge glaring at him. "I'll see you outside, declared Twilight, and with that she pranced out of the room.
Groaning but compliant, Spike got out of bed. "This is a waste of time, no creature is even running the shops right now.", thought Spike. He knew there was no stopping Twilight once she had a plan in mind, but it made no sense. Why not get this done a day earlier than tonight, it would be a terrible dinner if they just slept through it after all that work. And why didn't Twilight tell him sooner? This came out of the blue and Spike was completely unprepared for it.
Still, barely awake but moving on, he slowly but steadily made his way outside. He saw Twilight outside reading a particularly long to do list. "Celestia save me.", thought Spike, cringing at the length of the list. "Glad to have you here, we've got a lot to do." said Twilight. She levitated Spike on her back and started prancing toward town.