"Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle." And with that, Spike sealed off the letter, took a breath, and engulfed it in flames. It flew away on wings of magic, and she closed her eyes and sighed- Writing her letters was always a relief, even though she was no longer on a regimented schedule. Spike headed out the door-- Something about helping Rarity on a project before their appointment. Which was weird, she didn't think Spike and Rarity had anything planned today. Oh well, no worries, she can just head upstairs and let him do his own thing.

Her concentration wandered, and she began daydreaming, thinking about what Princess Celestia might be doing or about how she might receive the latest in a bevy of letters. Distracted as she was, when she hit the top of the stairs, she nearly tripped and went muzzle-first to the floor. She shook herself off with a worried little laugh, but the images stuck in her head. She hadn't had anything like this happen in quite a while, actually... The occasional weird dream, sure! But this was different- She hadn't actually daydreamed like this before, thinking about spending time with Celestia, maybe taking time to stay in Canterlot for a week or so, maybe studying under her private tutelage, perhaps even spending her nights together with her. Late study sessions, the occasional word of encouragement, and then... Hmm. Well. Seems like her brain was trying to prove her wrong today.

Deciding she could use a bit of a distraction, she went to read a bit, a light little adventure fiction she had picked up out of curiosity. This will certainly be enough to keep me occupied... was her original thought, but she didn't even make it through ten pages before she was transposing Celestia in the place of one of the characters, imagining that the comforting speech on the pages was being spoken to her, softly, in that regal voice, and in private...

She stopped reading with a massive blush across her cheeks, a little shiver up her withers making her rub her hind legs together nervously. This was... totally normal! Yeah. She really respected and adored Princess Celestia, is all- Nothing wrong with thinking of somepony like this, all the time, sometime waking up saying their name in a rosy little voice that barely sounded like herself... OK, so maybe it was a bit less adoration and more... Hmm. She had read about this, but she didn't really have any good empirical method of testing it. Except... Oh! This would be easy.

She stood up from her bed, looked into the mirror, and exerted a little bit of magic to change the image to that of her mentor. She looked upwards, into those bright, slightly cold eyes, at that perfect bearing, and tried, as hard as she could, to say those words.

"I... I lo..."

A solid minute of stuttering, blushing, and an oddly comfortable warmth in her haunches later, she was pretty positive that was enough testing. Oh dear. This... She had absolutely no idea how to handle this. She was in love, quite a bit it seemed, with a pony literally hundreds of times older and more powerful than her, with her mentor, the mare who had saved her and her friends time and again, the reason she got to study magic seriously, the reason she met her friends... The most important being in her, no, scratch that, in everypony's lives. And she hadn't the slightest clue what to do about it.

Lost in thought, she jumped in shock at the door downstairs opening, and voices coming in. Spike and... Rarity? And Fluttershy?

...Oh.

Oh horseapples. Spike had meant her appointment with Rarity! Aaaah stop worrying you need to get ready or you're going to be tar... No. Late. Just late. Not the other word.

--------

Ponyville's Day Spa was surprisingly well-frequented given the size of the town, but it never really surprised Twilight- Everypony likes to take some time off and relax, and the prices were easily within even the tightest budget. She had started coming regularly along with Rarity and Fluttershy over the last several months- Her frequent magic practice made horn care especially important, it was good to hang out with her friends, and it was... nice, to be pampered and to relax, to forget, for just a bit, about all the books and assignments and letters to...

Well! Moving on. Fluttershy was demure as always, and Rarity just slightly too poised, as they requested their usual treatments in the usual rooms. She was able to keep her mind off of her silly little incident for most of the day, until they ended up in the soak baths, heavily relaxed and free to talk without worrying about the Spa ponies overhearing anything. Which, of course, means Rarity has to take this opportunity to ask exactly the wrong question, right when she's distracted.

"Twilight darling, I've been wondering... have you met anyone in Ponyville who... strikes your fancy?"

"Well, I definitely have a crush on somepony..."

There was a moment of silence, at which point she facehoofed. "Oh wow I didn't think I said that out loud."

Rarity chuckled and put a hoof up to her mouth in fake shock.
"The endlessly studious Twilight Sparkle has a crush? Oh, Celestia forbid!" She laughs off her joke and shakes her head. "Twilight, that's perfectly understandable. But come now- Spill! It's terrible etiquette to leave somepony hanging after saying something like that!"

And then even Fluttershy joined in on the inquisition.
"I'm, um... I'm actually really curious too, Twilight. If that's alright."

She sunk further into the water, trying to hide from the conversation.
"Uughh... Girls, I am really embarrassed that I even said that."

"Oh, that's quite alright! We'll just guess!"

She had thought she'd gone through some embarrassing things before. The Parasprite aftermath. The incident with, ah... the other word for "late". But sitting in the steamy baths, her friends listing off a wide variety of mares and colts from all over Ponyville, she realized that was nothing by comparison. And of course, even that got topped a minute later when they exhausted their other options...

"Ooh, it wouldn't happen to be Pinkie Pie, would it?"
"Rarity! Are you really asking if it was one of our friends?"
"Well, it certainly hasn't been any of the other ponies we could name!"
"Yeah, and... we named a lot. I mean, we both know a lot of ponies, or, we all do, so..."
"Mmfph. Well, no, it isn't Pinkie."
"Rainbow Dash?"
"Nope."
"Uhm, is it, heh, either of us?"
"Oh! No. I... no."

Rarity rolled her eyes at her and leaned back in the tub.
"Well then, I give up- I'm out of ideas."
She felt so conflicted. She didn't even know if she would ever be able to do anything about this feeling, much less tell other people, but they were her friends, and they wanted to know, so...
Muttering, sinking herself entirely into the water, she said it.

Rarity perked her ears up and tilted her head in confusion.
"Hmm? Oh, did you forget to send your letter earlier?"

"...I wasn't talking about the letter."

"Well then why did you say... her... oh my stars Twlight really?" Rarity practically lept out of the tub, leaning over to look closer, and out of the corner of her eye, Twilight could see that Fluttershy was blushing almost as much as she was, for some reason.

"I think so. I... yes. So that's it. I'm just the absolute silliest pony, the most disgraceful student, wanting and hoping and looking... I don't even know if it would be legal, and I'm just a filly and she's the Princess, for... her, sake, I guess. And I don't have the slightest hope in Equ-"
She was cut off by a pair of slim forelegs wrapping around her shoulders-- Rarity, stepping out of her tub, hugging her, gently running one hoof down her mane.

"Shhh. Don't. Don't ever say something so ridiculous. You are my friend, you are the pony who saved all of Equestria twice, if not more, and if absolutely anypony deserves it and is capable of it, my dearest friend, it is you. We're probably the six ponies closest to our rulers, and if I hear you bad-mouthing yourself over something like this again I will be... Well, I'll be very displeased."

She sniffled, laughed, and hugged her friend back. Fluttershy had drifted over at some point, nuzzling up to the two of them quietly, sharing the comfort. Rarity was right. She had her friends. She had done things nopony else would ever be able to think of. She could make this work, or try. And... hey, what's life if you don't take risks, right?

Fluttershy went to speak, squeaked, and then started again.
"Well, uhm, Twilight, I can guarantee you're not the silliest pony in Equestria, haha. Because, I, um..."
Her and Rarity both stared at Fluttershy, waiting for her to finish.
"maybe-I-sorta-like-Luna-and-wanna-see-her-again" came tumbling out of her mouth, all one gigantic word-blob, and when they had both managed to separate it in their heads, Twilight gasped.

"What? But... Nightmare Night, you were so scared..."

"Ah, yeah, about... um, that..."

"Oh! I hadn't gotten to hear the details of this yet- Do go on Fluttershy!"
And so she told the story.

--------

The knock made her react on pure instinct, the same reaction she gave every year.
"GO AWAY, NO CANDY HERE, VISITORS NOT WELCOME ON NIGHTMARE NIGHT!"

But the voice from the door wasn't disappointed foals or angry parents for once. It was familiar.
"Ah-heh-heh... Fluttershy, it's me, Twilight!"

She swung the door open just a tiny crack, only to see her purple unicorn friend, hidden underneath an adorable hat and sporting a rather outsized beard.
"Oh, it is you Twilight!"

She swung the door open the rest of the way to let her friend in. Beside her was a tall, crown-bearing blue alicorn with a mane of starry night.
"Oh, and Nightmare Moon..."

Pause. Rethink. Look again.
"AH, Nightmare Moon!?"
She screamed, slammed the door with all of her strength, and fled like her life depended on it. Because it did. That was Nightmare Moon! The monster, the beast, the thousand-years-banished evil princess they defeated with the Elements, and she was here. Her heart was thumping in her chest so fast she couldn't even think straight, she was almost dizzy, and she barely remembered the scuffle she had with Twilight as she was shoved out the door again, into the face of... No, wait.

It was definitely still her. And Fluttershy was scared witless. But... Nightmare Moon wasn't the same. Slimmer, smaller, more... normal. But still imposing, still royal, and Fluttershy still remembered that fight in the tower, the dangers of the forest, their kidnapped Princess...

A booming voice, pressing her backwards through sheer volume:
"Charmed."
She ran, again.
She was retrieved, again, this time by magic. She fought, she struggled... But no. Again, to face her.
"...Likewise."

She spent the rest of the conversation curled up on the ground, stunned by that massive voice, hardly even knowing what she heard or what she said, and she honestly didn't remember the face-plant into the door. But in the end, the Princess... that is who she is, now, right? In the end, the Princess brought her voice down to normal levels, for a sentence or two, before she grasped Fluttershy in her telekinetic power and embraced her, shaking her almost violently in her enthusiasm.

"Oh, thank thee, dear Fluttershy!"

At that point her mind sort of fogged over, and she didn't really remember anything until after she went inside again, apart from... a chicken?

--------

"Now, see, that's... pretty much exactly how it happened, actually. But that's the point where I left."

Rarity was gaping a bit- She hadn't seen the Princess that night, she had been too busy sleeping off the efforts of sewing several dozen costumes on commission in the weeks before the holiday-- She never celebrated Nightmare Night, she spent far too much time making it happen. So Fluttershy... Hmm.
"But... What then? What did you do after they left?"

--------

That voice was ringing in her ears, as she cracked her joints back into place.
"Oh, thank thee, dear Fluttershy!"
The echo didn't really stop as she went upstairs, drew a bath, and sank into the hot water.
"...thank thee, dear Fluttershy!"
That sentence ran laps through her head as she tried to pin down the feeling under the fear.
"...dear Fluttershy!"
That.

That was what she remembered, under the fear, no, attached to the fear. She had never been quite so afraid in her entire life, even when they fought Nightmare Moon for the first time, even when she was plummeting out of the sky before she got her Mark. And she was starting to realize that... She really didn't mind being scared. Not in that way, anyways. Sure, Nigh... Luna. Princess Luna. Sure, she was scary, but she was... strong. She was the very definition of royalty, of the old world and the old ways, like some kind of walking, shouting time capsule.

And she was beautiful.

--------

Rarity was holding back a dark little laugh as Fluttershy stammered her way through the end of her story, fidgeting and blushing like wildfire.
"I bet you were quite glad you drew a bath, weren't you?"

"Rarity! I... that..."

"Oh ho ho ho, you did! That's fantastic!"

Twilight blinked in confusion. "What are you two talking about?"

"Oh, it's... Nothing. Never you worry your silly little head over it Twilight. We have something much more important to deal with."

Rarity stood, beaming with something like pride, or ambition, and she spoke.
"Well, since I already have somepony in my life, I know what I must do-- I'm going to help you two actually achieve what you're looking for."

Twilight and Fluttershy both stared, aghast. But then they smiled- They had a friend they could trust, someone who already knew all about the royalty and the intrigues of Canterlot's courts. But something was bothering Twilight...

"Wait, Rarity."

"Mmyes?"

"You said you already have somepony you're... involved with, right?"

"Ah." A quick look of panic, smothered expertly, if Twilight hadn't known to look for it. "So I did."

"And earlier, when you were asking me about my crush..."

She watched, trying not to laugh as Rarity crunched the numbers in her head, thinking back and wondering if she had really asked about everypony...
"Why didn't you mention Applejack?"

For a minute, there was no response, until Rarity sighed and slumped her shoulders in defeat.

"Well... Well blast. I had really been hoping to keep that secret a bit longer."

--------