Twilight smiled at the retreating tails of a unicorn and an earth pony from the impromptu high seat in the library of Ponyville Castle[1]. The expression was not [i]entirely[/i] forced; the audience had seemed to go well, and she thought that the two ponies looked more at ease with each other as they walked out than they had when they’d walked in.

Once they’d turned the corner out of sight, Twilight slumped in her chair, her breath rushing out in a quiet whoosh and her smile sliding down to something more neutral and tired. She turned to Spike.

“They were the last ones for today, right?”

Spike wouldn’t look Twilight in the eye. His hands were clasped behind his back and he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “Well… actually… I [i]just[/i] got someone asking to see you right away.”

Twilight’s whole face scrunched up. “Seriously? Couldn’t you ask them to wait until tomorrow, at least?”

Spike opened his mouth, paused, then continued hesitantly, “I really don’t think so.”

Twilight stared at Spike for a long moment, waiting for him to elaborate, but he just went back to fidgeting with his claws and carefully staring right above and to the side of her head. Twilight sighed in defeat, “Fine. Go get them, please.”

Spike shot out the door and Twilight composed her face as best she could. She heard somepony coming very soon, and she had to work hard to not let her eyebrows crawl up her forehead as the heavy, angry hooffalls approached.

Finally, her supplicants appeared, and it took all of Twilight’s self control to not let out all the exclamations that started going off in her head; Princess Luna stomped through the doorway, her brow furrowed angrily, her teeth slightly bared, her head low, and her starry mane and tail whipping in an unseen breeze. Princess Celestia trailed after her, her head also low, but her shoulders hunched slightly, her wings fluffed out a bit, and her mouth pressed into a thin line. She looked up at Twilight with an apology in her eyes.

“Twilight Sparkle,” boomed Luna without preamble, “we stand before thee to request thy judgement on a matter most grave!”

Twilight found her voice. “Uh. Okay—I mean,” she cleared her throat, “Very well. Please, in your own words, tell me what’s happened, one at a time.”

Luna needed no further invitation. She leveled an accusing hoof at Celestia. “This mare has done me a foul injustice!” She paused, apparently for dramatic effect. Twilight found worry gnawing at her insides as the anxious wing of her brain[2] began to spin visions of civil conflict in a divided Equestria.

“Pray, Twilight—didst thou notice that this evening’s sunset was delayed?” Twilight shook her head mutely. She hadn’t been watching the clock at the time; it had been in the middle of the prior meeting.

“Well, ‘twas indeed. For this mare—” Luna shook the hoof that was still pointed at Celestia “—was not present to attend to her duties in a timely fashion!”

Twilight’s brow wrinkled, and she opened her mouth to ask if that was it, but Luna charged onward.

“Indeed! Instead, she—” the hoof shook again “—was dawdling in secret at the back of the pantry, [i]pilfering the Everfree Forest Cake reserved for my tea![/i]”

Twilight closed her eyes, took one deep breath, released it, then slowly turned to look at Celestia. After a moment, Celestia nodded once, then looked away.

Twilight sighed, and then she got down to her business: solving friendship problems. By the time they left, Twilight had sentenced them both to weekly appointments at her castle.

[hr]

[1] The only ‘throne room’ the castle had come with was the map room. Rarity had insisted to Twilight that a round table was no place to hold Court, no matter how informal the proceedings, nor how small-scale the problems. Twilight had quickly decided she liked ruling from the library better, anyway.

[2] She had to be honest—it wasn’t just an anxious corner, or even an anxious room.