Fluttershy nervously fluffed her wings as they stood outside. She had been expecting a long wait, but their arrival at the library was met rather quickly by Spike; Luna only had to knock once, and he was right there. Fluttershy had only rarely seen him blushing before, but it was apparent through his scales that something embarrassing had just happened. Luna did not seem to notice, however, as she simply leaned down with a smile.
“Hello, young dragon! Spike, correct?”

“Yup! Good to see you again, Princess Luna.”

“Am I to presume that our sister has come to visit?”

The shift in his expression was subtle, but Fluttershy caught it: Now the potential source of the blush was narrowed down.
“Yees. She’s definitely here- Want me to get her?”

“That would be lovely.”

Twilight’s voice, sounding slightly labored, came from up the stairs.
“Actually Spike, let them in! We can sit down and have lunch together, remember?”

“Oh dang I left the alfalfa cakes in the oven! Gotta go, come on in!”
He quickly spun and rushed back to the kitchen, Luna chuckling. They stepped inside the library, Fluttershy immediately feeling at home- Going from her hillside home to Twilight’s tree-forged place of residence / business was not as huge of a change as, oh say, going to Rainbow Dash’s place. Pegasus or not, she still wasn’t terribly comfortable in cloud structures. The smell from the kitchen, for example, was far earthier than she would expect back home, family-home as opposed to her-own-home. Something about the environment...

She realized that in her reminiscence she had been left behind as Luna trotted into the Library, apparently here for the first time. Luna perused the shelves with a critical eye, stopping here and there to look over a particular shelf. At one point she paused and simply stared at what Fluttershy presumed was just a section of wall... But when she looked at it from just the right angle, she felt a bit of a strain in her eyes and suddenly noticed there was a seam disguised as part of the grain in the wood. Luna must have seen it as well, or even used magic to look past it, and inspect the contents. Apparently what she saw satisfied her, as she turned to Fluttershy and grinned.
“A very lovely library for a town such as this. I approve of Ms. Sparkle’s choice in domicile.”

Before Fluttershy could say anything one way or the other, ‘Ms. Sparkle’ herself replied.
“Why thank you, Princess- I know how much pride you put in Canterlot’s libraries, so it’s very pleasing to hear that from you of all ponies.”
The unicorn was coming down the stairs, Princess Celestia walking behind her. Even having spent the entire weekend in some very delicate situations with Luna, it was still an amazing pressure for Fluttershy to be in the room with both of their rulers. Her first instinct was to back down and let them speak without her, but a sudden brush of Luna’s wing was there to snap her back.

“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, both for the welcome into thy home and for treating my sister so well over the weekend. It is truly spoken that I have not seen her so relaxed since my return.”

Her courage bolstered, and the conversation at a lull, Fluttershy interjected.
“It’s really good to see you Twilight- And you, of course, Princess! I’m... I suppose you already know about me and, um...”

Celestia, Princess of the Sun, smiled at her as if she were a friend or an equal- A wide, friendly, completely open grin.
“Yes. And I am very pleased for both of you... Speaking of which, I imagine you and Twilight have quite a lot to catch each other up on, while Luna and I discuss this evening’s announcement. Shall we separate for now and return to take lunch together?”

They all agreed, and while the Princesses headed off elsewhere into the library, Twilight and Fluttershy were both left standing in the main room, suddenly looking much less composed. They traded glances, making one last attempt to get their weekends across without speaking. That turned out to be futile, so instead they burst out into veritable verbal waterfalls.

“So you-”

“Did the two of you-”

They paused. Talking over one another would only draw this out. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, but they clearly had a lot to go over.
“Should I, um, go first?”

“Yes, please do. I am all ea... I’m listening.”
For some reason saying that phrase made Twilight blush, but Fluttershy just shrugged it off. With a deep breath, she got started.

--------

At this point, Spike was used to cooking. He didn’t just do it because he owed it to Twilight, for her care, for raising him, or for being his family. He didn’t do it for the paycheck, nice as the gemstones were. He did it because he legitimately enjoyed it. It was fun, simple, controlled- He could take all the individual pieces and shape them however he wanted, arbiter of spices and controller of heat. Not to mention he got to relax, chilling out by the stove and listening to the library, and all the sounds of Ponyville outside.

Today, however, he was just listening to two particular sounds of Ponyville- Twilight and Fluttershy. Apparently the Princesses (on reflex, he made sure to put a bit of extra effort into the meal, minding their guests) had gone elsewhere, so now the two were free to catch up. He hadn’t even had much chance to speak with Twilight himself- Apart from, well, when he walked in on her. It was pretty clear they hadn’t been doing that, but wow were they close... Closest thing he had to a family or not, that image was going to be sticking in his head for a long time... like it or not.

And speaking of images, he could picture the pair of them bouncing around as they spoke. Their actual conversation was totally audible, so it wasn’t even very hard...

“Oh Fluttershy I still can’t quite believe this is really happening!” Said Twilight, as she probably danced back and forth on her hooves like she does when a new order of booksleeves comes in.

“Me neither Twilight, this is all so... exciting.” Fluttershy whispered as she... gee, um... Did whatever Fluttershys do when they’re excited? Cared for animals?

“OK, so maybe I’m not that good at picturing what they’re doing...”
He shrugged and went back to his work on the soup, only keeping his ears out for anything particularly interesting. Over the minutes that passed, he caught a few lines here and there, although he did try to ignore anything dirty. The very idea of Twilight talking about that kind of thing at all, much less doing that kind of thing, was not something he could process easily. But he probably let some slip through here and there- It wasn’t like he had any experience to go off of for telling mundane lovey-dovey stuff from that.

“So the two of you spent most of the weekend inside?”

“Well, yes... After the party, and oh do I owe Pinkie and Rarity for that, we just...”

“You just...?”

“Um. You know.”

“Oh! Oh. Oh wow. We, uh, should probably share, um, notes on that subject...”

Yeah, that was definitely Twilight Sparkle. Talking about her brand-new relationship, and her friend’s brand-new relationship, and her first instinct is to compare notes. He would have shaken his head dismissively, maybe laughed, but Spike knew full-well those notes of hers were often really, really useful. Of course, what could they be sharing notes about? Fluttershy and Luna stayed inside and did... what? A minute or so later, his entire face went cherry-red as he got the gist of it, and put all of his effort into cooking, blocking the image out of his head.

No more eavesdropping. Never works out.

--------

Unfortunately for the always-inquisitive Twilight Sparkle, she wouldn’t be taking notes on her friend’s love life, or sharing notes on her own, just yet. The reason being? Before she could, their respective love lives walked down the stairs, smiling at them, and one another. Celestia walked over to her, and Luna to Fluttershy, apparently having agreed on something before coming out.

“Well, it has been phenomenal visiting, and will hopefully continue to be later, but...”

“Oh, Luna, are you leaving?”

The mare of the moon frowned.
“Unfortunately- Many, many plans to make, and in little time. Thou art welcome to join us, of course, but we imagined the two of thee would wish to catch up with thy friends over lunch.”

Twilight was a bit confused.
“Well that’s a shame, we had Spike make enough for... Wait, our friends? Plural? What do you-”
A brief flash of rainbow light from outside, and a knocking, answered her question.
“How did they...”

Celestia leaned down and kissed her cheek.
“I suppose you will have to ask them yourself, dear- We will come meet you all later tonight, before the announcement, alright?”

“Sure! I hope the planning goes as, um, planned. And, also...”
It was a bit daring, but this entire weekend had been pretty daring, so she went with it- Quickly, Twilight leaned up and nipped Celestia’s ear.
“I love you.”

The results were almost more than she could have hoped for- Celestia actually blushed again, mouthing the words to herself as if hearing them for the first time.
“I love you as well, Twilight... Although don’t think you’re getting away scot-free just because I have business. You will get yours later.”

She couldn’t help but giggle.
“Yes ma’am!”

Luna and Fluttershy had already wished one another farewell while they were speaking, so Twilight moved to the door. In one swift motion, she popped it open, levitated her friends in, and levitated the Princesses out. Unfortunately, she was just a bit too slow, because Celestia managed to say those dreaded words before the door closed again.
“Pinkie Pie... Please arrange a party for the whole town. By tonight. Thanks!”

And then the door shut, and the five of them stared, slightly worried, at the party pony. She was sitting on the floor, perfectly still, and not a single one of them could guess what was going through her head.

--------

Before the door had opened and she got whisked up in the shiny cloud of Twilight’s magic, Pinkie had been in a conversation. So it took a little while for the Princess’s message to make it onto her train of thought, or to the front of her train of thought... Why did everypony call it a train anyways? Did they call it that before they had trains? Which came first, the big metal machine or the fizzy crackly brain-bits? Either way, it took its sweet time moving up the... Conga line! Conga lines are a way better copacetic metaphor for the equine thought process, especially hers! OK, so, conga line of thought. Currently headed by the shiny new car (Pinkie was not terribly good at the whole "copacetic metaphor" thing) “Conga Lines and How I Think Like Them”, followed by “Really Sorta Awkward Conversation with AJ and Rarity while I Try Not To Spill About Me and Dashie” and the coupled-car “Wow Me and Dashie Never Did Finish Making Out Earlier”, with “The Princess Just Asked Me To Plan a Town-Wide Party” taking up the back.

Any minute now, that final, most important car will make it a bit further forward, and she might actually react to it. But until such a time, she was instead fixated on the idea of how passing the lampshade-hat around a conga line could represent the process of creating long-term memories. Such was the life of a Pinkie.

--------

After a brief moment, and a quiet -POIK- noise, Pinkie simply got up and started walking to the kitchen, yammering to Spike about the smell of his alfalfa cakes. Everypony else shrugged, muttering something to the tune of “Pinkie...” at the same time. However, Twilight was still (as ever) curious, in this case about why her friends suddenly showed up.
“So what brought you all here all of a sudden?”

The answer came from Rarity, in the end.
“Well darling, Applejack and I were simply heading into town for a bit to see if anypony else had gotten the message about tonight’s meeting, when we ran into Rainbow and Pinkie doing precisely the same thing. And wouldn’t you know it, that’s when I was... Well, almost overwhelmed by the sense of somepony teleporting in a very strange way.”

Twilight blushed.
“Aheh...”

“Yes, I thought as much. Well, we gave you sufficient time to relax, get decent, unpack and such, and then came to visit and see how your weekend was!”

“Rarity, why would you assume I wasn’t decent?”

“Well, tell us how your weekend went, and we can find out!”
She made the rather pointed statement with a wink, and Twilight could feel the blush all the way to the edge of her neck. Applejack was laughing up a storm and Dash doing the same beside her. Fluttershy, in a similar boat as her, was just quietly radiating enough blush-heat to boil water.

Before Twilight could actually make good on explaining, Spike leaned out of the kitchen.
“Good thing I made enough for leftovers, if we’re actually having seven eating- Food’s on, everypony!”

And the questions were, mercifully, whisked away in the stampede to make it to the kitchen. If they had learned anything over the last few years, it was that Spike was becoming a better cook with every passing day. Pinkie may be the undisputed master of baked goods (and bads), but nopony in Ponyville was quite the cook Spike was becoming. Twilight half-considered ribbing him a bit about how he might even get a cooking cutie-mark, but the last time somepony made a joke about him not being very dragon-like... Well, a lot of ponies wondered if Ace was ever going to be able to grow his eyebrows back.

--------

At first, she had expected their conversation to take place during the meal. In retrospect, that was silly, because not only had Spike made alfalfa cakes, but the spicy tortilla-and-bean soup she had found in that Neighxican recipe book. So instead, everypony ate quickly, quietly, and most of all very happily. Finally, Dash and AJ kicked back from the table simultaneously, both groaning and patting full stomachs. Pinkie finished a moment later, then Fluttershy and herself. Rarity, as always, ate daintily, but still finished only a minute or so later, her bowl immaculately clean.

Before any kind of conversation could get started, Dash lifted a hoof.
“OK, so, I kinda have a big announcement, and... Might as well make it now.”

Everypony at the table (except Pinkie, she noted) looked on curiously. Dash exhaled slowly, and took a moment before making her ‘big announcement’.
“Pinkie Pie and I are marefriends.”

Silence. Complete and utter silence. Twilight could see the strain on Dash’s face as she waited to see her friends’ reactions, and even Pinkie looked a touch nervous. Eventually, it was Rarity who spoke up.
“Yes, and?”

If she had been expecting any kind of response, it wasn’t that- Dash looked like she was about to cry.
“And what? That’s it! The whole thing! And you all...”

Applejack looked at her in confusion.
“And we all already knew that. So seriously, what’s the rest of y’all’s ‘big announcement’?”

“You... what!?”

“Darling! Did you really think we didn’t... After all those late nights with you pushing your cloud surreptitiously closer to Sugarcube Corner?”

“Or the time ah found you sleepin’ in a tree with some pink mane stuck ‘tween your teeth?”

“And it’s not like that cloud-walking spell is subtle or anything, you track residue everywhere...”

“And, um, I honestly just saw you two kissing in the woods sometimes. And heard.”

Dash stared at them all, deadpan.
“So... Not a problem or anything?”

“Well, if it had been, we certainly would have told you as much quite some time ago!”

“Right. Awesome. Wow does it help to have that off my chest. I mean, jeez-”

“OHMIGOSH I NEED TO GO GET THE PARTY FAVORS READY! And the cake and the punch and the decorations and aaaaah~!”
Apparently, Celestia’s request had just made it to the periphery of her attention, because Pinkie shot into the air and then out the door- Never once touching anything in between to reset her momentum. Twilight noted this brutalization of the laws of physics with the same casual attention she gave it every time. At this point, regardless of her studies into the matter, the entire issue was chalked up to “It’s Pinkie” and shelved. Rainbow Dash just started laughing, occasionally pounding the table as she caught her breath.

“Ahahaha dang that... Yeah, that’s my Pinkie alright.”

“Aaaw, your Pinkie? Cute.”

“Oh can it AJ- It’s not like everypony isn’t sick of hearing you get all lovey-dovey over ‘your’ Marshmallow.”

Regrettably, Twilight hadn’t heard that particular nickname before, and couldn’t help but laugh a little, which earned her a dirty look from both of the arguing ponies. Once they stopped looking at her, AJ and Dash were staring one another down from across the table, and the metaphorical sparks in the air were almost dense enough to qualify as literal ones.

“Were those fightin’ words, ‘Dashie’?”

“Depends- I wanted to work up a sweat anyways, ‘Sugarcube’.”

“Five minutes. The tennis court. No wings, no lasso.”

They spat in their hooves, shook on it, and raced out the door- Never once breaking eye contact, despite how very narrow the library’s kitchen door was. Rarity simply sighed and facehoofed.
“I love her dearly but she simply can not turn down a challenge, especially not one to her honor like that... Well, if she loses, I’ll be there to help ‘tend’ her wounds. And speaking of tending...”

Nervously, Twilight realized that she hadn’t seen Spike since he took away everypony’s dishes, and that she and Fluttershy were now alone with Rarity. Trapped with Rarity. Trapped in a small room with Ponyville’s fifth-most notorious gossip hound, whose eyes now burned with a very particular hunger.
“Speaking of tending, given that there is apparently such an important meeting tonight... Why don’t the three of us go to the spa early this week, get ourselves tended to, and you two can tell me everything?”

If she hadn’t been looking for a chance to do just that with Fluttershy anyways, Twilight would have been nervous. Instead, she was absurdly nervous, because the emphasis on ‘everything’ made her realize just how much, and just how dirty, the ‘everything’ she had to spill was. But did she think there was the slightest chance Rarity would let them escape without a full recap?

She sighed.
“I’ll go get my bits.”