The royals at the princess's birthday party!

"Move those ponies to the West Garden on the double!" The king yells at the servants currently leading a massive procession of white horses. "The guests will be arriving soon, and if anyone is missing a pony, I'll be the laughingstock of the royal court for the next week!"

Princess Farcadia's birthday is one of the most talked-about galas of the year (slightly more than the second Noble Midsummer Cotillion, and slightly less than the Yule Pumpkin-Carvers' Midnight Ball). Royals and nobility from across the land will be arriving soon for the festivities, and more importantly, for the many orgies that will inevitably take place during the grown-ups-only afterparty. As such, there are expectations that the king needs to uphold if everyone is to have a good time. Specifically, the queen and her concubines have specific requests that he spares no expense in putting together. It's certainly motiviating that some of them are also his own concubines, but I digress.

The king still has no idea of his daughter's latest escapade, instead believing she'll come down from her room in the next couple of hours as the last guests shuffled through the gates. So his focus is on the many, many party activities that still need setting up. For example, the fourth chocolate fountain is on its way to the second ballroom, set to the perfect temperature for the guests to bathe in.

"That had better be dark chocolate and not milk. Is it?" The king asks to the servants pushing the wagon. Several of them look nervously to one another, while the one at the front who seems to be leading the procession replies, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"It's 'Your Eminence' you half-wit!" The king bellows. "Honestly, if you can't remember such simple orders, I'll have to dock your pay again! You'll have to make do with half a copper a month, you got it?"

The servants all mutter affirmations as they scurry out of the king's sight with the chocolate. He scoffs before turning to his next concern, the flying elephant circus for the second dinner course. He's so caught up in his tasks that he pays no mind to how he hadn't recognized any of the servants who'd just walked past him. Or how they all seemed to be wearing ill-fitting, out-of-fashion uniforms. Or how they had just gone in the direction of the royal armory instead of the ballroom. Or how he had only requested three chocolate fountains, not four.

No matter, though. It's not as though the goings-on of the lower class ever impacted the ruling class at all, right?