The door to the therapy office opened, creaking softly as the therapist, Mendy Bridges, walked in, floating a file on her clients in front of her as she entered the room. She didn't address the pair as she took a seat on a chair facing the couch where they sat and made a few final notes. That finished, she looked up at them and nodded. "So, have we made any improvements?"
Princess Twilight Sparkle and 'The Great and Powerful' Trixie, as she liked to be addressed, were some of the strangest, if not the most stubborn, clients the relationship therapist had ever had in her office. Both of them had gone out of their way to find the most discreet relationship counselor and paid a lot of bits to ensure that things would be kept quiet. She had hoped to make a quick buck and go on to easier clients. But things haven't been going well.
"Things would be going fine.. if SOMEPONY was considerate about my responsibilities!" Twilight's harsh glare at Trixie made it clear who that 'somepony' was. That was a recurring theme with the relationship. Twilight's new role as a Princess had her attending functions as well as taking care of bureaucratic items that left the therapist's head spinning when she explained it, and Mendy herself has an office at home with documents piled high on it.
"Well, Trixie wouldn't have to bend over backwards for these 'responsibilities' if somepony paid attention to Trixie once in a while," Trixie snapped back, returning a harsh glare of her own. Normally, Mendy would have told them that Trixie's desire for attention was too in conflict with Twilight's need to her duties. But there was an undercurrent that drove Mendy to seek to repair the relationship.
Twilight needed Trixie to provide a release from the stress of her duties that would normally threaten to break a weaker pony. And Twilight is about as rock steady a pony as one could find with all her schedule and planning making. She provided structure for the unicorn, both when she traveled on the road and at home. They needed each other to understand their quirks.
"Alright, alright." The therapist interjected into the bickering of the two, wanting to avoid a heated argument. "Let me just remind you two of what you got yourselves into." She first turned to Trixie, "You knew you were starting a relationship with a Princess. I know love can make ponies do stupid things, but you must have known that things would be complicated. And you," she turned to Twilight next, "You know Trixie is a pony who craves on attention. You need to fulfill her needs as well as your own."
"But I do," Twilight said, appealing to the therapist, "I never stay the night if I can help it and if I can't, I always bring Trixie along. And I plan our schedules so that she can go to all the shows she can and I can attend events in the same area while still seeing her show."
"When it suits you!" Trixie harshly interjected. "Trixie remembers quite a few times where Trixie saw your seat, ready for you to fill it, go unseated by you! Too busy kissing hooves and securing your connections with your new love to spend time with Trixie it seems!"
Twilight's countered after she got her jaw off the floor, "That is so not true! I mean, I did miss some.. quite a few of your events, but there were reasons! They sometimes never ended when they said they would and sometimes I would drink a bit and lose track of time."
"Or maybe you found comfort in the hands of another pony." Trixie intended to mutter that under her breath as she looked away from Twilight but it came out louder than she intended. The shock of the statement left Twilight reeling and the therapist to clinch her teeth and wait for the coming explosion.
She needn't wait long. "YOU think I am having an AFFAIR?!" Twilight looked on the verge of exploding on Trixie with everything she had.
Trixie kept her back to Twilight, her hooves crossed in dismissal. "Do you see how she grows angry at Trixie. Trixie believes that is proof."
Just when it looked like Twilight was going to jump Trixie, the therapist interrupted the flow. "Alright, ladies! I see we haven't done as well as I had hoped. Let us try a new exercise. I want you to take on the personality you see in your partner. Don't become them, just act like them. Twilight, would you like to start," She said as she smiled, hoping to defuse the situation. However she was short on tricks and on patience for the pair.
Twilight snorted and stood up, a flash of her horn later and she was in a purple cap and cape with stars taken straight from the night sky. Her voice was grandiose as she said, "BEHOLD! The Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle stands before you and demands that you change plans made months in advance and with plenty of prior warning because Twilight demands that you spend time watching a boring movie with Twilight even though you work so hard to cover all the costs and need to secure our future!"
Trixie gasped in shock at the representation of her and stood u pin a shot, her own horn flashing to put on a clearly false crown and wings before her presentation, using as bookish and self rightious voice as she could. "Twilight, I can not spend time with the pony I claim to love because I have to go and kiss the hooves of a bunch of ponies who just want to use me like some cheap back alley pony to get their own way. I want to go fawn myself in the light of my precious teacher and go eat fancy cake and food and leave you all alone to cry because I don't care about you!"
The facades quickly fell as the pair dissolved into bickering. "You think I don't care about you? Why do you think I work so hard going to those boring events! I would rather try to have a calm conversation with PINKIE PIE than hang out with those uptight snobs!"
"You would like to run off with your friends, leaving Trixie all alone! Your friends hate Trixie, Trixie knows that they say things about her behind Trixie's back!"
"They do not, stop saying that. If you just spent some time with them-"
"Every time Trixie does, they look at Trixie like she is sewage! I know they do!"
They both clinched their teeth at each other, sending harsh glares to each other until finally they snapped to the therapist. "Well, what do you think?!" They said at once in a venom filled stereo.
Mendy looked at the pair for a few seconds before finally speaking. "What do I think? I think I'm not getting paid enough for this."