“Now Princess, you have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the Appleloosan settlers. They said the buffaloes want to start business relationships with Equestria and they´re sending an ambassador here with the settlers as her escort,” Kibitz, Princess Celestia´s loyal assistant said, checking his notes.

“Wonderful. I always look forwards to make new friends,” Celestia said, taking a sip of tea.

“While I appreciate your disposition, Princess, you should stop treating every meeting like a tea-party. Not every species likes that.”

“Stop worriyng so much, Kibitz,” Celestia said, looking around the balcony.

“Something is troubling you, your Majesty?”

“Oh no no! Just...where is she?”

“Where is who, your Majesty?”

“Umh..” Celestia struggled to come up with an answer but luckily, the pony in question arrived. “Inkwell, my good friend! Kibitz, you remember professor Inkwell, right?”

“I remember her planting booby-traps under the saloon table during the meeting with the representatives of Saddle Arabia…”

“Those traps were for those pesky gremlins! Damn invisible pesters that keep stealing my left shoes!” Inkwell shouted.

“Nonsense. Everypony knows that gremlins live in clouds in the edge of the Everfree Forest. And they don't steal shoes, that´s ridiculous.”

“You think you know better about gremlins than me, sonny?”

“I happen to know quite a lot about them, in fact. I deal with them during the massive downpour in Fillydelphia, forty years ago,” Kibitz replied.

“Ha! That´s nothing compared to the parasprites infestation I deal with fifty years ago! Damn critters ate half of my bookshelf!”

“Isn't this lovely? Two friends sharing old stories?” Celestia said.

“Friends?” Inkwell and Kibitz replied in unison.

Celestia returned to her tea, taking nervous sip after nervous sip, when her salvation came in the form of Raven, her personal secretary. “Oh goodness, Raven! Is there any emergency?” The bespectacled mare nodded, rather nervously and Celestia got up. “Well, i better go see what is it. You two stay here, sit and...keep chatting.” Celestia peeked one last time from the door to say, “Here. Chatting, like two friends.”

Kibitz and Inkwell remained in silence for a minute before he re-filled their cups and then let go a huge sigh.

“The Princess is getting careless,” he said. “What is this, her fifth attempt this month?”

“Seven. Don´t forget her cursed bedsheets emergency last tuesday!” Inkwell said, laughing.

“Oh yes, a rather desperate attempt. Why does she keeps insisting in putting us in this embarrassing situations?”

“Girl is a romantic. Always been, always will.”

“But why is she so convinced there is...a mutual interest with each other, “ Kibitz said and blushed a little when he noticed the smirk on Inkwell´s face. “It´s getting quite tiresome to indulge her in these scenarios,” he said, coughing and taking another sip of tea.

“Poor girl might look all regal and tall but you and me both, we know deep down she is like a tall filly. How many times have we caught her diving into a  rainbow fall?”

“Too many to count,” Kibitz said and they both shared a laugh.

From behind a corner, Princess Celestia, Raven and a few guards were looking at the scene.

“This is wonderful! Finally they're talking!” Celestia said.

“Princess, I don´t wanna question your judgement, but hasn't Princess Cadence warned you about this before?” Raven said.

“Oh please, Raven. Even Cadence admitted these two love each other. They´re just too stubborn to break their routines. All I do is give them a little time alone, time they need,” Celestia said and Raven and the guards smiled, noticing her heart was in the right place. “Now, we need to keep the illusion! Guards, pretend there was an emergency on the kitchen! Raven, come back with tons of books about cursed food or something! I need to be quite busy for the next few hours!”

Raven and the guards smiled and retreated and Celestia went back to watch two of her oldest friends, sharing laughs and a nice cup of tea.