Calm. Calm down and breathe. Just... relax. That’s what the spa is for, right?
Fluttershy was trying to give herself a little internal pep-talk, now that it was revealed that her simple act of kindness and affection had implied... Well, no. Frankly, a lot of the things she had been doing implied that maybe she was sort of coming on a little bit strong... But that extent of things was never her intention. She was just... very kind, and loving, and Luna was so strong and accepting and warm and... Sidetracked. Right. That’s a little too relaxed, Ms. “Stuck Royalty’s Horn Down Her Throat”. Well, not that much of it, although she was sure that it wouldn’t be too hard if she tried, and might actually be kinda nice GAH I am sidetracking again. OK. Just... really stop and think things through.

Her friends were staring at her with worried expressions, and she decided that she could be a silly worry-pony later. Right now, it was being totally unfair to Twilight that she was hogging their limited time with so much drama.
“I think I’m alright, girls. I’ll figure out what to do later, when I can talk to Luna about it. For now, let’s just... get back to our stories.”

Twilight nodded.
“I’m glad you’re being rational and calm about it, Fluttershy.”

On the inside, she was screaming so loudly that her ears hurt.
“O-of course! No sense in worrying, right?”
Another scream within.

The studious unicorn got up out of her bath for a moment, stretching and looking at the ceiling. Fluttershy had seen this once or twice before- When she got really excited retelling a story, or discussing trade embargoes with the Western Badlands, or whatever the topic of the day was, she needed... pacing space.

“So, that night, we had gone through that super-tiring day together and studied and then I ended up... Oh! Oh wow I almost forgot to tell you two the most important part!”

Rarity looked up from the glass she had just finished cleaning off the floor.
“Yes, darling?”

“Well, Luna-”
Twilight winced and paused, but she didn’t mind.

“It would be very silly if we couldn’t even talk about Luna. Like I said- I’ll figure it out... later. Keep going, Twilight- What was so important?”

“Luna had told me, and I don’t know for sure how true it is, but... She said that Celestia got lonely at night. Something to do with her absence after Celestia banished her. So she told me to keep her company, if I could. And I...”

The unicorn paused, blushing and fidgeting, but was quick to continue. From where she was sitting, it seemed like Twilight paced so much for just that reason- She could burn off her nervous energy by walking, and just concentrate on the discussion at hoof. Maybe I should try that someday...

“I asked Celestia to sleep with me.”

“WAHAWHAT?“

It took that massive outburst for Twilight to realize what she had said.
“No! Not... Oh jeez. Not sleep with me, like... I said it would be like a sleepover. Because I had never had one at the old library.”

“Oh. Oh darling you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry, Rarity. All we did... then... was sleep. And I had a dream.”

“About her, I wager?”

“Yeeess? Sort of. I had a dream of how I was going to tell her. And in the morning, when I woke up, I did it.”

Fluttershy listened intently as Twilight described her plan, all the way from getting away with an excuse of “preparing a gift”, to using her new spell to get in touch with Spike, and finally to the arrival of the letter as they ate breakfast. The longer she spent describing the plan, the more manic and far-ranging her pacing was, until by the end she had lapped the entire room several times. And then she stopped dead, apparently trying for a dramatic pose but instead looking vaguely paranoid, head peering back at them as she stood in the room’s center.

“And you know what happened, girls?”

They nodded to one another, having long-ago learned to act in concert. You don’t spend several years going to the spa every single week without becoming close. So they replied at the same time.
“She said yes?”

“She said y... Aaaw.”

All of them burst out laughing, the residual tension from the earlier conversation all gone. Now they could actually relax again, really relax, not just flee into little stress-borne fantasies about walking at Luna’s side to the stage during the announcement tonight and tilting her head down and kissing her in front of the entire Fluttershy get a grip this is NOT the time. She cleared her throat, looking back to Twilight, desperate for a distraction.

“Well, that was... that was more than enough for me. She embraced me, we kissed, and we laid back down to get some more sleep- She said we would talk about it on waking.”

“I hope that you did- That would be a terrible time to leave things uncertain!”

“Oh, we really did. And it turns out, well, a lot of my fears were unfounded...”

Fluttershy chuckled.
“Aren’t they usually? I mean, I know I get scared very easily, but paranoia has always been sort of your ‘thing’.”

Twilight looked at her quizzically. Apparently that had been enough to interrupt her retelling.
“My ‘thing’? How is it my ‘thing’?”

Now she was nervous, but she kept going.
“Well, um, Applejack never lets herself accept help, Dash is always really bleak about things behind her optimism, Pinkie gets all... dark... I get scared by my own shadow, Rarity can be kind of melodramatic (“I... don’t actually have an objection to that”) and you... get paranoid. We all have our own little quirks.”

Her friend looked around, tapping her chin with her hoof in thought.
“I guess you’re right! Huh, I never thought of it like that. Well... Yes. I had figured that our relationship would be limited to things like weekend study retreats, small vacations, little things. After all, she’s Celestia.”

“But you were wrong?”

“Yes! I was wrong! ...And for once, I was happy to have been wrong. She said she would be totally committed, and I wouldn’t have to worry about hiding it or anything, and oh girls it just made me so glad to hear that.”

They shared congratulations with her, both equally happy for their friend- It was so rewarding to realize things had turned out perfectly for everypony.
“And then she revealed her horrible, terrifying plan.”

...Maybe not so perfect? But before she could question it, Twilight turned back to her with a big grin.
“Your turn now!”

“...Is that really the kind of cliffhanger you are going to give us, Twilight dearest? And are you even serious about that bit?”

“Maybe, maybe not. But Fluttershy did it to me like twice now, and turnabout is fair play.”

Rarity didn’t object, and so now she was on the spot. Well... buck.

--------

It had been quite some time since Celestia had been this impressed with her sister. Which is not to say that she disrespected Luna, but simply that her return from... elsewhere... had required a long bit of acclimation. But now she was back in her groove and creating arcane and inscrutable plans which nopony could understand from looking at anything but the entire picture... Needless to say, that may have been a familial trait they shared. And so she was applying her own practice to helping out, getting this plan running smoothly before the evening's public announcement. The perfectly-written checklist Luna had so kindly sent said that the next step was...

18- Finish Overseeing Stage Preparations at Roughly 4 pm

19- Go To The Southern Outskirts of Ponyville and Wait For Five Minutes

...Well. Apparently her dear sister had decided to either mess around with time-influencing magic again, or just knew how much Twilight's love for schedules came from Celestia's own habits. Something about spending an entire millennium handling the cycle of day and night, working both beats as it were... The experience left her with a sometimes-regrettable focus on chronology and precision. And so here she was, waiting on the edge of the small city, looking for... What? Why did Luna have her out here? Their alicorn magic, ancient knowledge, and skilled understanding of pony nature may have made it seem like they could automatically see the future; or at least made it seem that way to some ponies. But the truth, plain and simple, was that they could do no such thing.

Not exactly. That is not to say they didn't have ways of knowing what was coming, or estimating the results of an event. After all, history tends to repeat in both large and small ways, and when you have lived millennia, you have seen enough repetitions to make few things seem truly new. And those self-same millennia lent a wide pool of lost or supposedly-forbidden knowledge, including spells that could... Well, suffice to say she had the problem well in hand, if it ever became a problem. All of this without any mentions of 'outside' sources of information, which she would never abuse or even, frankly, be willing to refer to. Too risky, too ridiculous...

Her quickly rail-changing train of thought was slowed to a halt as a loud crack and a flare of black-purple light came from a stand of trees nearby. Ah, the wait is over it seems. She did not hide- There was no need for the Royal Sun to do anything so crass. Instead, Celestia merely stood still and allowed the sunlight to pass over and through her. It would take an absurdly incisive pony to notice her, with their sight denied, but it was possible. An Earth Pony could feel her disturbing the ground, a Pegasus could sense the static in her mane, a Unicorn would detect her magical field. And anypony could still smell or hear her. So would this mysterious visitor find her? And how?

"Hey Celestia! 'Sup?"
Matte Finish stepped out of the bush, smiling wide and bright. Or they could simply ignore my invisibility entirely. That also works. His wife- Nickle 'n' Dime, if she remembered correctly (And what a strange concept that was, having to actually remember somepony's name) came out immediately after. She shrugged, letting the light strike her once more. No sense in keeping up a useless disguise, after all.

"Apparently not much, apart from your sudden arrival."

"Which you were somehow prepared for. And in Ponyville for."

Celestia smiled at him- If they were going to play it that way, so be it.
"Yes, well, I'm just here to help prepare for the announcement."

Matte nudged Nickle and the two of them began to walk as they talked. Celestia followed suit, staying just ahead of them.
"Ah, right- Your sister's big speech tonight?"

"I did not say it was tonight, nor that Luna was involved."

"Nope, you certainly didn't."

She stared at him. He looked back, rakish grin unmoving. Eventually, she started to chuckle. Maybe a little verbal spar would be refreshing.
"Mmh, no. And yet you knew. I'm going to take a leap of logic here and presume you haven't been spying on me."

He looked at her with mock offense.
"Me, not spying? Well... you'd be right."

"And it's fairly reasonable to presume you're not ponies at all, are you?"

Neither of them so much as blinked or slowed, simply continuing to walk with her.
"We're definitely pony shaped."

Again, she couldn't suppress laughter- It was amazing how quickly he moved from being cagey and dismissive to outright admitting things like that.
"Many things are, but not all of them are actually what they seem. Would you give me a straight answer if I asked what you actually were, or where you came from?"

"I dunno- Would you give me a real answer if I asked the same?"

"...Point taken. Well then, perhaps you could tell me how you do the things you do? Creating impossibly precise devices with no moving parts, performing long-lost acts of artifice..."

"You ever hear that phrase 'All the world's a stage'? Well, I like to think of life as a game... I'm just working with the bugs."

That was excuse enough to grace him with a real smile- She hadn't expected that much information.
"Human, then. From Earth."

Matte stopped, although Nickle never once broke stride. Eventually he huffed, sounding slightly disappointed, and caught up to them.
"OK, ya stumped me there. Mon amor, how'd she figure that one out?"

His wife patted him on the shoulder with one hoof.
"You said bugs, Mat. Around here, where the only games are sports and board games, you'd have said you were cheating, or maybe exploiting loopholes. But bugs means programing, which means computers, which means science, which means..."

"Right. Gotcha. Oh well, it's not like I'd been hiding it that much."
Regardless of his apparent indifference, he still pouted a bit. Celestia wondered just how many layers deep he was currently acting- Was that an accidental slip at all? Was he even dejected by this turn of events? His acting was solid, and his wife was even more enigmatic, with as little as she spoke. The Princess was almost tempted to slow down the passage of the afternoon, let them have a long conversation before she was inevitably pulled back to her duties. On that note, what even was her next objective? She looked down at the scroll...

20- Have a Pleasant Conversation with Thine Guests, and Take Thy Time

21- P.S.-- Thank thee dearly, my sister. After that point, go ahead and relax, take a break- Consider it an enforced miniature vacation. The rest of this scroll will be random gibberish prefaced with numbers to make thee think there are other objectives.

22- Kumquat. Aardvark. Lavender. Patchouli. Knowledge.

23- Layer. Cake. Dedication. Procrastination. Select...

It went on like that for another half of a scroll. She facehoofed, and turned back to the couple.

"Ahem... As we were saying?"

--------

PLOT-CRITICAL AUTHOR'S NOTE

1- In not-so critical news, 4o2 just passed 100,000 words published!
2- In VERY critical news, go read this fic as soon as you get the chance- It is part of 4o2, and VERY relevant to all your interests.