Celestia, Artemis and Twilight entered the throne room with a pair of Day Guards escorting Celestia and a pair of Night Guards escorting Artemis. There were many ponies present and waiting for them. Most of them were present the night before. None of the ponies in the room had noticed them enter and were still talking among themselves. Well, mostly, they were looking at and listening to one pony.

Prince Blueblood.

“I’m not sure what happened to the original documents.” He said “Probably a mix up made by one of my servants. It’s not a big problem, though. I can just have another set drawn up.”

One of the ponies in the crowd spoke up. “What about what happened last night?”

Blueblood answered “It went better than I hoped it would. He actually gave into his anger completely and returned to his evil form.”

Another pony in the crowd replied “Yes, but he didn’t destroy anything. Princess Twilight stopped him before he could hurt anypony. In order for this to work, we need him to attack somepony.”

Blueblood looked at the one that had just spoken and replied “Don’t worry about that, I’ll handle the Commoner Princess.”

All three of the royal alicorns felt their blood boil at this, but they each managed to keep their temper.

“Make sure you take notes on what has already been and will be said during today’s court, as well as by whom it was said.” Celestia whispered to her personal assistant.

“Yes, Princess” came her quiet reply, already taking notes.

Celestia cleared her throat and raised her voice “Good Morning, my little ponies. I’m sorry for the late start, something came up.”

“Good Morning, Princess” came as a chorus from everypony in front of her. They looked surprised as Princess Celestia was followed up to the throne by Prince Artemis and Princess Twilight, who had a large stack of paper floating along next to her in her magic.

Princess Celestia saw their confusion and said “I know it is a little unusual but, due to the back log of work, the three of us will be holding a joint court today. My brother and I will handle the topics and issues as they come up. Princess Twilight will be going over the legal requests that have been submitted for approval over the last couple of days. In this way, we will be able to address everypony’s concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

There was no response as they watched Princess Twilight walk a little off to the side before summoning a small table with her magic, as well as a pad of paper, some ink and a couple of quills. A small cushion was placed before the table for her to sit on. She smiled her thanks, sat down and got to work. Princess Celestia sat on her throne and Prince Artemis sat next to it, also on a cushion placed there for him. A pair of Night Guards stationed themselves on either side of Princess Twilight, while a pair of Day Guards stationed themselves in front of the royal siblings.

With that, Princess Celestia officially declared court open.

In a motion of unusual generosity, the nobility allowed the common ponies to present their cases to the court first.

The first several issues presented before the court were the usual debates over which property belonged to which pony or problems that they needed help with because they couldn’t solve them themselves. Princess Celestia and Prince Artemis slipped into a routine as they worked together, slowly and carefully sorting through each case and coming up with the best solution they could for each one.

As they worked, Princess Twilight was sorting through the legal requests. The stack of papers was steadily sorted into smaller piles. The disapproved pile was drastically larger than the approved one. Her list of reasons for each disapproval and notes on each request was rather long as well.

Suddenly, Prince Blueblood flinched and froze. Everypony in the throne room, except for Princess Twilight, looked at him to find that he was several shades paler than usual.

Princess Celestia tilted her head to the side as she asked “Nephew, are you alright?”

Prince Blueblood didn’t respond as he stared in horror at a document written on a piece of parchment that had gold design work embedded into it. The parchment in question was suspended in the magenta glow of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s magic as she read the paper in front of her.

“Celestia, Artemis,” She began, in a carefully controlled, low tone of voice “I apologize for the interruption, but I have something here that you both really should see for yourselves. Right Now.”

Princess Twilight got up and slowly walked over to the throne, the Night Guards following closely, in case anypony were to try anything to stop her. As she did, several ponies suddenly decided that they needed to leave the room. They headed for the large double doors, only to find them encased in more of Princess Twilight’s magic as they slammed shut.

“Nopony is leaving until we sort this out, so make yourselves comfortable.” She said as she made it to the throne and passed the document from her magenta magic glow to Princess Celestia’s golden one. She then went to stand next to Prince Artemis, with him between her and Princess Celestia. The Day Guards moved so that they were both standing to the right, slightly in front of Princess Celestia and the Night Guards positioned themselves so that they were standing to the left, slightly in front of Princess Twilight.

Most of the ponies in the throne room were confused, but willingly followed the order and sat down. These ponies were among the majority that loved Princess Twilight. They were ecstatic when they heard that she had ascended and was now royalty. As far as they were concerned, she earned their respect when she saved Equestria, so many times that they no longer bothered to keep count and was a major force behind the return of their Prince of the Night.

There was, however, a group of ponies that were huddled together and shivering, obviously terrified. They were lifted in the golden glow of Princess Celestia’s magic and deposited in the center of the throne room, right in front of the throne.

Next Chapter: Chapter 8 Estimated time remaining: 36 Hours, 22 Minutes