The Joint Royal Court was in complete disarray with the Nobles and Ministers arguing and bickering.

"This isn't the right time to announce it!"

"This IS the perfect time to make the announcement!"

"You blindsided fool! Two separate attacks against the Crystal Empire and our capital respectively within three days, followed by an announcement of Celestia and Luna abdicating? The whole world will see this as a sign of weakness!"

"On the contrary! It was the united efforts of Princess Twilight and her friends that those two attacks were resolved!"

"BAH! 'United efforts?' Don't make me laugh, we all know that it was Prince Blueblood who drove those three fiends from our castle!"

"And just where did you hear that drivel? I thought it was that Salem fellow,"

"Silence in the court!" The voice of Starswirl the bearded boomed, turning all eyes to him.

Prior to his injuries against Tirek, the old stallion was resting in a wheelchair with a sling attached to his left arm. Despite this, the ancient Wizard held firmly on the podium before the court, albeit with some help from his protege Sunburst. Taking a breath from his voice amplifying spell, the great mage gestured his uninjured arm towards the two Princesses standing at the helm of the courtroom.

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will now hear the court's words," Starswirl announced, his voice returning to normal, "Who will take the floor first?"

In the middle of the Council room’s table, pairs of two gems, red and green respectively, dimly lit up. Each pair represents a Noble house or Party faction.

The first to speak was a noble representing the Solar Court as he stepped forward to light his pair of gems, indicating that has the floor.

"Princesses. I and several like-minded members of the Solar Court request that we recant the announcement of Princess Twilight Sparkle's coronation to the throne of Equestria," he declared, sparking several protests.

"Order, please!” Celestia calmly silenced the room as she turned to the representative of her Solar Court, “Care to elaborate your case, Baron Firebond?" Her voice was calm, masking her annoyance by his 54th attempt to derail Twilight's coronation to the throne.

"With all due respect, Princess, members of the court, we had not one but multiple simultaneous occurrences within these past four days," Firebond slammed a fist on the desk in front of him to emphasize his point, "First, the attack of the Crystal Empire by King Sombra. Second, a powerful relic being destroyed causing the Sirens to return. Third, Discord carelessly assisted three dangerous enemies to Equestria to gain terrible power, who I might add that I warned before, was uncontrollable and should have been imprisoned rather than 'rehabilitated' let's not forget."

Firebond pointed a hand out to one of the windows, "And this sudden cave-in! All within a week!” He paused, letting his words sink in before continuing, “And after all that, we are to announce the sudden abdication of the Royal Sisters along with the coronation of Twilight Sparkle as sole ruler of Equestria? How would this look to the other nations? Honorable members of the Joint Royal Court, the whole world can only see this as one thing: Weakness."

As he returned to his seat the entire court was now in hushed murmuring, some agreeing while others silently disagreed. That was until another light gem was lit followed by Fancy Pants to stand against Firebond's words causing Celestia to give a slight smile at the humble Noble.

“Announcing Lord Fancy Pants of the Royal Mercantile Party,” announced Starswirl.

Canterlot’s most important figure bowed as thanks before he spoke, "Before I make my point across, I would like to remind the court that Baron Firebond has repeatedly attempted to reject the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle on far too many occasions long before the events of this week. I believe that Baron Firebond has no grounds for stopping the announcement, short of furthering his own personal agenda. Furthermore, despite the subsequent events, we are still here talking due to Princess Twilight and her friends who managed to quell the issue with two of those threats with the help of an outsider, who mind you was enlisted to aid us due to the Princess of Friendship’s efforts. I believe that her coronation announcement will strengthen the solidarity of our Nation, as well as send a clear message to the world that she is ready to take the throne."

Several court members nodded in agreement to his argument when he finished speaking.

Feeling a sense of relief wash over her, Celestia was going to speak when another magical gem glowed to counter Fancy Pants. To her surprise came from the Lunar Court, a bat pony stood up holding a hand out to Fancy pants.

“Announcing Commander Star Streaker of the Lunar Court.”

“Lord Fancy Pants, as much as I would like to agree with you old friend, I find myself agreeing for once with Baron Firebond.”

The room erupted with mutters of surprise and bewilderment as Star Streaker lowered his hand and continued.

“Despite his reservations towards the former student of Princess Celestia, I have to agree that now is not the time to make such an announcement. While our alliances have grown since Princess Twilight’s Ascension, there are still those who view Equestria as a prime target. Most of whom we may have forgotten our transgressions against them long ago and may yet still hold those grudges to this day.

"The Western Diamond Dog Clans still have not forgotten the fire we started which accidentally set their mines ablaze during the great parasprite swarm outbreak three hundred years ago. What about the Kitsunes of Japony? Let us not forget we almost drove them into extinction when the noble House Sable seized their homeland, that was until Mistmane persuaded the Head of the Sable family to return to their homeland and depart back to Equestria.

“On the other hand, there are those who look to our nation with envy and spite. Coveting all that we have.” Throwing out his arms the bat pony noble looked at the masses, "The Storm King’s Invasion is a prime example of such and his defeat was nothing short of luck attributed to the betrayal of one of his own captains. It doesn’t help the fact from the reports I’ve read of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s attempt to steal the Hippogriffs’ relic to beat the Storm King, a relic mind you that was their only defense against such threats!"

The Court began to whisper among themselves before Star Streaker began to close off his argument.

"Right now I believe it is in the best interest of the Nation that we postpone the announcement of the coronation. It might be best to withhold such an announcement until perhaps two, maybe three years when these events are but a distant memory?" The bat pony suggested.

"Agreed!" A voice shouted from the court followed by a wave of voices.

Celestia turned to her sister who, unlike her, looked to be silently agreeing with Star Streaker's argument, not able to speak before Starswirl boosted his voice again.

"ORDER! ORDER!"

Turning back to the now silent court, Celestia felt a cold sweat come to her brow as she couldn't look away from what was spoken.

"My sister and I hear the court's concerns. We will all vote for the cancellation of the announcement of Twilight's Coronation," All eyes were on her while she spoke. "All those in agreement?"

"Aye!"

"And those against?"

"Nay!"

The magical gem next to each respective Party and Noble House began to light up red and green in respect to each vote and the results weren't what she wished for.

The entire room lit up with dozens of peridots.

"What do we do Luna?"

Within Celestia’s personal chambers the Solar Princess looked to her sister, still troubled over the court’s decision.

"What do you mean Tia?" Luna asked.

Moving a hand from her face, Celestia hung her head low. "I was expecting certain members of the Solar Court to admit to derailing the coronation but not those within the Lunar Court," she explained while using her magic to pour herself another cup of tea.

Luna stared at her sister for a moment, then to the window looking out at the ponies going about working on the large holes to the underground mines.

"Honestly sister? Perhaps my court had a change of mind after these past events... and maybe they are right to do so.”

Her answer caught Celestia slightly off guard, "What do you mean Luna?"

"Sister, in the span of a few days the worst we’ve suffered was not the attacks or damages from these chain of events, but from the reaction of the citizens," Luna began. "Look at one of the villages that Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow sent into disarray in the span of a few hours: Mother's leave their children to fend for themselves, Brothers turn on brothers, and the young steal from the old. All from a rumor here, a lie there, and-"

Snapping her fingers to prove a point Luna set her teacup down.

"That's all it took," Luna then took off her crown, "Our citizens are fragile Tia... and Twilight is so young. Perhaps it's for the best that we remain on the throne until our people finally realize that they need to grow a backbone."

Baffled by her sister's words Celestia just stared at her. "What are you implying Luna?"

"Well if it weren't for Salem’s timely arrival we would have made a grave mistake with putting a young and inexperienced pony on the throne," Luna replied.

"Luna..."

Putting her crown back on Luna stood up.

"Celestia... Mother gave us the responsibility to make sure the Kingdom she died for remained unbroken. Best we do our best to keep it from falling apart," Luna placed a hand on her older sister's shoulder. "What is done is done. We must move forward from here."

Walking away, Celestia looked at the tea in her cup as Luna continued, "Don't forget sister, tonight is the Masquerade Ball... best not have your mind on the court's decision."

Giving a low sigh the Solar Princess looked at her dress.

They canceled the announcement but of course, they refused to cancel the ball.

The Elite and their parties.

Process... Black box version 3.2.6... Please input commands... Tab>extract-data Loading command... Please wait... Searching for data... Data found... Gathering data... Please wait... . .. ... WARNING! DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED! Tab>process-data(corruption recovery_1) Command accepted processing... Data found! Gathering data... Warning! Unable to recover corrupted files- (Error) Data not found. Tab>download-data-recovered. Command accepted processing... Processing... Please wait... Begin downloading-0.01% Download time- 13 Days, 8 hours, and 10 minutes.

(Salem's room)

Salem stared at the screen of the freshly assembled PC before him, the one thing that could give him an answer was right in front of him but even with his highly advanced equipment there was one thing he couldn't avoid.

Long Data downloads.

He had to do the one he hated doing.

Waiting...

So the Chimera did one thing to blow off steam while he waited.

Pace.

He had to have at least been going back and forth a couple of thousand times by now. While he waited, Malo watched her partner with slight worry in her eyes as she sat on top of the bed. Holding her legs to her chest the digital entity had her ears flattened down against her skull while she watched worriedly.

She hated seeing Salem like this. Back when they first started to bond Malo found him in a far worse state being a complete mess and unhealthily stressed. Before their respective 'upgrades' she tried her best to help him get better and over time he has improved though still holding on to a reasonable amount of paranoia due to the flesh monsters right outside their home.

Now he was back to pacing which he hadn't since his improvement surgery.

Malo silently whimpered not knowing what to do.

"Inquisitor.”

Titus sensing the tension spoke up.

"What?" Salem lightly hissed while not stopping his pacing.

"Stop pacing."

Salem didn't cause the living model to grumble over his AI-generated voicebox.

"Salem. Be still and sit down. Titus spoke again this time in a firm tone.

Stopping at his friend's voice, Salem sat down on the bed as the Space Marine told him.

"Now breathe. Deep breaths." All were silent as the only sound came from the quiet exchange of Salem's rebreather.

All was like that for a few moments, Titus then broke the silence.

"Inquisitor you must allow the machine spirit to do its work. Your unnecessary rage is clouding your mind. You need to take a moment." The son of Guiliman said leaving the room in silence once again.

Malo looked at Salem for a moment, the SCP slowly crawled next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

Not saying anything Salem put his bare head to hers.

Hearing his heartbeat slow down Malo couldn't help but smile while Salem began to calm down.

"Sorry guys... I just-"

"It's alright Inquisitor. I may not have a body but I too am distraught by these current developments."

After his apology to his comrades, the door to his room was rapped with a knock causing Malo to silently whine while Salem got up. Holding his hand till he got far away the impossible lady watched Salem go towards the door and opened it.

"Princess? Is something the manner?"

Princess Luna stood at the door with one of the elements.

"Nothing that is life-threatening but there is something that does require your attention."

"Which is?"

"Salem, do you have a suit?"

Author's Note

Sorry, for the wait here guys I got sidetracked with work among other things (one of them being the name for this arch title), plus I would to apologize I tried my best on the 'old' computer part I'm not the best at programming text in stories.

I got a fun plan for this arch with it well... as the title implies that something is going to happen at this ball.

One thing after another I know, but that is life in equestrian.

But along with that, I did take inspiration from Star wars for the court scene.

Now to work on the next part.