"So," Rarity began. "You mean to tell us that there's a giant, talking alicorn skeleton beneath this very castle as we speak? How utterly dreadful!"

Applejack frowned to her. "Hey now, come on, that's Celestia an' Luna's Pa yer talkin' bout."

"Oh, I know, but when I stop and think of how many times we've been in this palace, and now thinking this apparently powerful ancient alicorn has just been beneath us this whole time?"

Twilight smiled as she sat upon her throne, clapping her hooves together enthusiastically. "I know, right? To think, all that ancient knowledge, right there within easy reach of me. Oh, the things I can learn!"

Pinkie giggled as she zipped on right up to her. "Gee, Twilight, I'm surprised you didn't spend all day asking him questions down there!"

Here, Twilight frowned. "Oh, believe me, I'd have loved nothing more, but somecreature decided to come and interrupt me!"

Spike, looking totally unconcerned, shrugged. "I won't apologise for getting you to your meetings on time. It is why you wanted me as your aide in this job, remember?"

Twilight groaned. "Uuuuuuugh! Okay, yes, fine. I needed to be there, you're right." She pointed to him. "But as soon as all my appointments are over, I'm going right back down there to ask as many questions as I want, deal?"

"Deal," Spike agreed, with a happy shake between them to confirm it.

Walking closer to her royal friend, Applejack took on a look of curiosity. "So what's he like, this Solaris fella?"

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, only to stop as she pondered that question. "Huh...you know, I spent so much time asking questions I never really got a feel for his character. But I have to assume he's cut from the same cloth as his daughters. So we can likely expect a lot of wisdom and sound judgement." After seeing her friends look to her with uncertainty, she too shrugged. "Look, I'm grasping at straws here. I didn't even know the stallion existed until recently."

Fluttershy, who had been quiet for most of this, smiled to her friends. "I know he's an unexpected arrival onto the scene, but I don't think we'll be seeing anything bad from him."

Rarity looked to her with interest. "Fluttershy, dear, you've never even met him. How can you be so certain?"

Fluttershy thought on that, then resumed her smile. "Just a good feeling about him, I guess."

Before any other pony could speak though, they were interrupted by the sound of Spike clearing his throat, seeing him hold up a clipboard and pointing to it. "I know this is big news and all, but we do have a lot to get through today."

Twilight nodded, using her magic to levitate her crown onto her head. "You're right. We're the Friendship Committee after all, and we have a job to do."

The others all nodded in agreement, getting to their respective chairs, with the exception of the one whose place was still vacant. "Any word on Rainbow?" Rarity asked.

Applejack shook her head. "Nope. Some new mission they got. Keepin' her pretty busy I hear."

A brief "ahem" from Twilight got them all to attention. "In any case, we can catch her up when she arrives. Now..." She levitated some documents Spike had been holding for her to look at. "First order of business is Las Pegasus. We've had a number of complaints recently that the gambling problem is getting out of hoof over there."

Pinkie giggled again. "Er, sorry to pop the bubble here, Twilight, but Las Pegasus was made for gambling."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yes, Pinkie, but not to the point of leaving ponies destitute! This is a real problem and we need to consider restrictions and limitations, at least on just how much the casinos encourage ponies to take part in all that." She took on an irritated look. "I suspect a certain pair of brothers might be behind this."

Pinkie tapped her chin. "True, but we can't just make a law to..." Then, her eyes widened. "Wait...can we make laws?! As in us? Right here?"

Twilight looked uneasy. "Technically I make the laws, but you're all free to make suggestions certainly."

Pinkie rubbed her hooves together with a look on her face that wouldn't have been out-of-place on a supervillain. "In that case, can we outlaw clown-goblins?"

After staring at her for the expectedly long amount of time, Applejack broke the silence between them. "What in tarnation is a clown-goblin?"

Pinkie pointed to her. "Oh, they're real! Don't even pretend that they're not!"

This typical Pinkie Pie craziness might well have continued if it wasn't for the sudden and timely arrival of Rainbow Dash, bursting through the doors of the throne room and gaining everypony's attention. "Sorry I'm late, I was just busy being awesome!"

Twilight, thought still smiling, shook her head to that. "Nice to have you join us, Rainbow. I trust your mission went well?"

Rainbow cackled as she flew over to her chair. "Oh yeah! The Wonderbolts have been getting a whole bunch of missions lately. Go here, do that, try and recover this long-lost, super-dangerous artefact. You know, that sort of stuff. And we've just been acing it every time."

Fluttershy patted her on the shoulder in a gesture of encouragement. "It's nice the Wonderbolts have been doing well."

Rainbow shrugged. "Weeeeeeell, most of them kinda fumbled on a lot of them, especially the new recruits." She jumped up, standing on her chair before placing one hoof upon her chest. "But then I, Rainbow Dash, showed those youngsters how it's done, and boom, we had our win!"

Realising that the matter of excessive gambling was clearly going to have to wait with everypony's focus elsewhere, Twilight rummaged around the papers before settling on one that reported a far more attention-grabbing subject. "Well then, shall we perhaps get to the problem of an apparent manticore attack in the far-western reaches?" That did the trick, and all eyes were on her, much to her satisfaction. "We'll need to investigate. Rainbow, since you're on a bit of a hot-streak right now, how about you?"

Rainbow saluted. "Consider it done, boss."

Twilight's eyes then fell to Fluttershy. "You should go too, Fluttershy, If anypony here has a chance of de-escalating a dangerous situation with a manticore, it's you."

Fluttershy nodded. "I'll do my best."

Rarity looked to her friend, leaning back into her chair and just smiling warmly to her. "There's no doubt of your success. I must say, Fluttershy, I will never fail to be amazed at just how easily the taming of dangerous foes comes to you."

Thinking about that, the former bearer of Kindness simply smiled back. "Just a gift."

No new chapter next week, as there's another story idea that's been brewing in my mind for a few days now that I want to start on