The three of them were walking out of the dining room, when they were approached by a pair of Day Guards. “Your Highnesses, court is about to start.”

Celestia looked at them “It will be just me leading court today. My brother and Twilight will be in the library.”

The guards shifted nervously “With all due respect, your highnesses, the petitioners are demanding that Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight Sparkle be present in court today.

With matching sighs, Artemis and Twilight headed towards the throne room, followed by Silver Shadow and Midnight Fang. Celestia could do little else but follow them, followed by a pair of Day Guards.

Celestia asked Artemis and Twilight to wait outside of the throne room, in case they were not really needed in court. She entered by herself to find the throne room packed. “Good Morning, my little ponies. My brother and Twilight plan to spend the day working on the legal requests brought up in yesterday’s court.”

“Good Morning, princess” responded everypony in the room. The assembled ponies then looked at each other before one of them stepped forward. “With all due respect, Princess Celestia, we humbly request-“

“Demand!” shouted one of the ponies in the crowd

“- the presence of Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight Sparkle.” He finished

At that, the doors to the throne room opened, catching the attention of everypony inside. They looked to the doorway to see Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight Sparkle standing side-by-side. Before either alicorn could say anything, they were greeted by a thunderous cheer. Caught completely off guard, all they could do was stare. It took them a few moments to get over the shock and step into the room.

The pony that had spoken for all of the others turned to them “Good morning, Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight. My name is Arctic Breeze. I apologize for interrupting your plans for the day. The reason we demanded your presences in court today is two-fold. First of all, Prince Artemis, we wanted to see you so that we could confirm for ourselves that you are yourself and not on the moon. The second thing we would like to confirm is the rumor that you, my prince, are in a relationship with Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Artemis stared at Arctic Breeze for a moment “Thank you for your concern. As you can see, I am just fine and have not been sent to the moon. As for the rumor you spoke of, it is no rumor. I am, indeed, courting Twilight.”

Twilight stepped forward “Before, you ask, I will confirm all three of the stories that were printed in this morning’s paper. The pictures are all real as well.”

The throne room erupted in cheers. Through the cheers, shouts of “I knew it!”, “I told you!”, and “Yes, it’s about time!” could be heard.

Twilight tilted her head “Which one of you said “It’s about time”?”

The crowd parted to reveal two unicorns.

Twilight’s ears perked up and she took off running towards them “Mom, Dad!” as she tackled them in a hug.

“Sorry, Twilight, we can’t stay long. We just wanted to confirm the rumors for ourselves and make something clear.”

“What’s that, Mom?”

“Twilight and Prince Artemis, we expect to see you at our house for dinner tonight. Prince or not, we need to meet the pony who stole our little girl’s heart.” Twilight Velvet held up a hoof as her daughter looked like she was going to protest “We did the same thing with your brother and Cadance. Now, it’s your turn.”

“Mom-” Twilight started, face red, before she was cut off by Artemis as he walked towards them.

“Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, I cannot say how long court will last, but we will be there as soon as it ends.”

Twilight gave her mother a glare, face still bright red “You did not have to do this in the middle of court. You couldn’t have sent a message or come during the lunch break? I know that’s what you did with Shiny and Cadance.”

Twilight Velvet’s eyes widened before she looked down sheepishly while Night Light laughed “You know how she is when an idea gets into her head. Stopping her was never going to happen. Well, we’ll see the two of you tonight.” He led his wife out of the throne room.

Artemis nuzzled Twilight “Is she always like that?”

Twilight sighed “Yes. She gets an idea in her head and just charges forward. If it involves me or Shining Armor, it doesn’t matter who she’s dealing with or the possibility that they might already have plans.”

Artemis looked at her “Did you have plans for tonight?”

Twilight sighed again and nodded “I was going to surprise you with something, but I guess that will have to wait. And no, I will not tell you what it is.”

Artemis hugged her “Whatever it is, we can postpone it until tomorrow night.”

Twilight smiled “Okay. You’ll like it, I promise.”

Artemis looked up at the crowd of ponies “I’m sorry about that. We can get on with the petitions.” With that, he and Twilight walked up to Celestia and sat next to her as she sat on the throne.

Arctic Breeze smiled “It’s alright, Prince Artemis. We all understand what just happened.” He shook his head “Parents will be parents, even if their children are royalty.” The rest of the ponies in the throne room laughed.

Another pony in the room stepped forward “Good morning, your highnesses. My name is Ice Blossom. First of all, I would like to formally thank Princess Twilight Sparkle for her actions of two nights ago that saved Prince Artemis. Secondly, I would like to congratulate the new couple of Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight Sparkle.” She paused and frowned “Unfortunately, the third topic is much less pleasant. Blueblood. What will happen to him for the horrible acts he committed? Namely, enraging our prince, with the goal of returning him to his Nightmare form and having him permanently banished back to the moon.”

Celestia spoke up, noticing Artemis’ wince and Twilight’s frown. “He and his conspirators have been imprisoned in the Royal Dungeons and are awaiting trial. They stand accused of treason and conspiracy against the crown.”

Several ponies shouted at once.

“Why put him on trial? His plan has already been proven to exist!”

“Yeah, if it wasn’t for Princess Twilight’s actions, we wouldn’t have Prince Artemis here right now!”

“That’s right! He would either be Night-Terror Knight or banished to the moon!”

“Blueblood cannot be allowed to get away with that!”

Celestia stood and stepped forward “Neither he nor any of his conspirators will be getting away with anything. They will be put on trial because they need to be punished via our legal system. This will also show any others that may have similar plans that these actions will not be tolerated and will be dealt with harshly.”

“Very well” Ice Blossom replied “In that case, we request that the trial be a public one. We want to have a say in what happens to the ponies that threatened our prince.”

Artemis’ eyes widened

Celestia nodded “That can be arranged, as long as the legal process is followed properly.”

Ice Blossom nodded as well “The next part of our petition is as follows. As per Princess Twilight’s decree, Night Court was cancelled for the last two nights and is scheduled to restart tonight. We have gotten together and have decided that we would like you to push the cancellation of Night Court out for another week, starting today. We want Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight to get a proper start on their courtship. One week from tomorrow, next Tuesday night, we will return for Night Court.”

Celestia nodded again “That too, can be arranged, and I would be happy to see to it personally. Is there anything else to your petition?

Ice Blossom smiled “There is one last part. We, as a group, have decided that we want Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight Sparkle to leave Canterlot for the week. We believe that Prince Artemis will not be able to properly relax in a location where such a stressful event has happened, so recently. We know that our prince is welcome and loved in Ponyville. Therefore, we would like him to stay there for the week.”

Artemis could do nothing but stare at Ice Blossom.

Twilight saw this and smiled “We will be staying in Canterlot today and visiting my parents tonight. Tomorrow morning, we will head for Ponyville. I would be happy to have him stay with me at my castle.”

Celestia opened her mouth but was cut off by everypony in the throne room cheering.

“Thank you, Princess Twilight” said Ice Blossom before both she and Arctic Breeze bowed.

Celestia got a mischievous smile on her face as she summoned a scroll and a quill. She quickly wrote a letter and sent it to Spike.

Meanwhile, Twilight turned to Silver Shadow and Midnight Fang. “I promise that Artemis will be safe in Ponyville, as there is nopony there that would want to harm him.” She took note of the worry present on both of their faces. ”However, if you wish to ensure the safety of your prince, the two of you are welcome to come as well.”

They both smiled and Silver Shadow bowed. “We would be honored to, princess. Thank you for allowing us to accompany the two of you. After the events of two nights ago, it is imperative that we see to the safety of our prince.”

Meanwhile, in Ponyville, the other five Elements of Harmony had gathered in Twilight’s Castle of Friendship. Mayor Mare was also there.

“Spike,” Mayor Mare began “is there any word on Princess Twilight’s return?”

“Yeah!” shouted Rainbow, right in Spike’s face “Princess Celestia said that Twilight would only be in Canterlot for two days. She should be back by now!”

Spike backed up and was about to answer, when he burped out a flash of green fire. The fire turned into a scroll that he caught, opened and started to read.

“Well?” questioned the girls

“It’s from Princess Celestia.” replied Spike

“We know that, Sugarcube.” Applejack said “What’s she say?”

“Twilight will be visiting her parents today and tonight. Tomorrow morning, she and Prince Artemis will be coming to Ponyville. He will be staying here in Twi’s castle with her for a week.” responded Spike as he looked at the bottom of the scroll “Pinkie, Princess Celestia says that she wants you to throw a party for Prince Artemis, not tomorrow, but Wednesday.”

“Aw, why do I have to wait that long?” Pinkie pouted

“Princess Celestia says that she wants Twilight and Prince Artemis to relax tomorrow,” answered Spike, looking over the scroll again “and that we are not to ask Prince Artemis about what happened. Twilight will explain it.”

The girls and Mayor Mare looked at each other, confused.

“What is that supposed to mean, darling?” asked Rarity

Spike shrugged “That’s all it says. We’ll see Twi and Prince Artemis tomorrow, probably around noon.”

After a pause Applejack cleared her throat “Well, Ah guess that the only thing we can do is wait for tomorrow. Ah know ah will be here early. Ah want to bring those apple fritters that Twi likes so much. Ah think ah’m gonna bring extra, maybe the prince will want to try some.”

The other girls and Mayor Mare agreed, and left to get things ready for Twilight’s return and Prince Artemis’ visit.

Back in Canterlot, the throne room was now practically empty. The petitioners had decided to leave, happy that the prince and princesses had agreed to their petition.

Celestia, Artemis, and Twilight looked at each other before Celestia turned to her guards. “Where are the rest of the petitioners?”

One of the Day Guards turned to her “There are no more, princess. The pony named Arctic Breeze told us that there would be no more petitioners until tomorrow.”

Celestia paused “I see.” She turned to Artemis and Twilight “Why don’t we eat lunch before you two head out to visit Twilight’s parents?”

They both nodded.

Artemis turned to Silver Shadow and Midnight Fang. “Get some rest, both of you. The two of you have tonight off, in preparation for the trip to Ponyville tomorrow morning. Silver Shadow, before you begin your personal preparations, be sure to make the necessary arrangements so that the Night Guard shift for Canterlot is taken care of.”

Silver Shadow and Midnight bowed “Of course, your highness.”

The three alicorns headed to the kitchen.

There, Apple Crunch looked up “Welcome, your highnesses. What would you like for lunch?”

Twilight smiled “A daisy and daffodil sandwich and a fruit salad.”

Celestia said “A lettuce and tomato sandwich and a slice of red velvet cake.”

Artemis paused in thought “Vegetable soup and a side salad.”

Apple Crunch bowed “Right away, your highnesses.”

Ten minutes later, the chefs came in with their meals.

They each dug into their meals. After they were done, Celesta spoke up “You two had better get going. You don’t want your parents to think you are avoiding them, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded and sighed “Let’s get this over with.”

Artemis and Twilight headed to the nearest balcony and took off. They flew to Canterlot and landed in front of Twilight’s childhood home.

Next Chapter: Chapter 14 Estimated time remaining: 35 Hours, 39 Minutes