Micro-Series Issue 10

My Little Pony Micro-Series #10, titled The Day Shift, is the tenth and final issue of IDW Publishing's My Little Pony Micro-Series comic series. In the issue, Princess Luna takes on Princess Celestia's responsibilities for a day while Celestia takes the day off.

Summary
At Canterlot Castle, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia talk as the sun rises. Luna recounts the exciting events of the previous night, and Celestia talks about the busy day ahead of her. Luna believes that she could handle responsibilities for both night and day; when Celestia disagrees, Luna accepts the unspoken challenge and decides to take on her sister's duties for a day. Celestia informs her scheduling advisor Kibitz of this temporary regime change and tells him to show Luna the ropes of the "day shift".

Kibitz briefly acquaints Luna with Celestia's schedule. Luna is initially surprised by such a packed agenda, but she remains determined to see it through. After several minutes of observing Equestria through a telescope, Luna meets with the royal guard for a uninteresting morning report. Meanwhile, Celestia takes advantage of her day off to spend the day at the Elite Equine Spa.

Following a meeting with the castle kitchen staff, Luna and Kibitz meet with delegates from the Crystal Empire. As she signs piles of paperwork, Luna mentally commends her sister for having to deal with such matters on a daily basis. Next on the schedule is civilian disputes, which excites Luna considerably.

In the throne room, Luna settles various disputes between Flim and Flam and other ponies. Before Luna gets carried away with her overzealous excitement, Kibitz cuts things short and moves onto the next activity on the schedule. Despite Luna's mild exhaustion, it is only 9:00 in the morning.

As Luna presses on with Celestia's packed schedule, Celestia herself enjoys a day of pampering. Luna and Kibitz soon break for lunch—after Luna convinces him to let her have cake—and Luna begins to doubt her ability to handle her sister's duties. Kibitz assures her that Celestia wouldn't have given her this task if she didn't think she could handle it.

Later, Luna and Kibitz make an appearance at the Canterlot Garden Society Tea Party. While Kibitz momentarily excuses himself, Luna gets into an altercation with Fancy Pants in chess—using live ponies as chess pieces—and Kibitz has to drag her away. They return to the Crystal Empire delegates, and by this time, Luna can barely keep herself awake and simply approves everything that's asked of her. One of the delegates comes up with the idea of showing Luna everything at once. Before long, Luna becomes so frustrated that she stuffs Celestia's schedule in Kibitz's mouth and sees to the rest of her subjects' matters her own way.

As Luna completes the rest of the day's duties at her own pace, Celestia returns, noticing how well her sister has handled things and scolding Kibitz for piling everything on her at once. Luna greets Celestia and begs her to take on her day duties again. Celestia says Luna can take on her duties again any time she wishes, but Luna says she is perfectly happy with the night. As the sun sets, Celestia retires to bed, and Luna whines that she wants to go to bed too.

Back at the Canterlot Garden Society Tea Party, Fancy Pants and the ponies on the "chessboard" wonder if Princess Luna will return to finish the game.

Luna Gets a Pet
A bonus two-page story depicts Luna's excursion through the Everfree Forest the previous night. She considers adopting a creature of the night as a pet. Her options range from an owlbear to a bat to a skunk. She eventually settles on an opossum and names him Tiberius ("Tibbles" for short).

Quotes

 * Princess Luna: I'm sure I could handle both the night and day. I fought the faceless perils of the dark. You are about to fight a roll of red tape.


 * Princess Luna: How exciting to see so many ponies out and about during the day! The peasantry of our kingdom enjoying the land... Thrilling!
 * Kibitz: Let's not call them "the peasantry", princess. It's not... endearing.


 * Royal guard: And then, we're going to go through the Everfree Forest on patrol. We thought we saw a monster there yesterday!
 * Princess Luna: Oh goody! Did you?!
 * Royal guard: Goodness, no! It was just an opossum. It gave Flash Sentry over there quite the start, though!
 * Flash Sentry: It did!


 * Princess Luna: Can I have cake?
 * Kibitz: Do you know what all that refined sugar will do to you?
 * Princess Luna: It will make me most happy.
 * Kibitz: ...Fine. Just don't blame me when your cholesterol suffers.


 * Kibitz: Oh Celestia... Your sister would banish me to the moon if she saw what you just did.
 * Princess Luna: Let's not use that particular allusion again, shall we?
 * Kibitz: Oh! Sorry...