Author's Notes:

Timeline:
Set some time after Magical Mystery Cure, but before the start of the next season.

Background:
Oh, what a delightfully divisive episode! Lurker that I am, I was quite content to stay out of the bloody spiritual, philosophical, and moral war that this episode sparked, but I still had fun speculating on where in the world Twilight was headed as a character after this small change.

The conversations I had with my friends about these were numerous and full of shipping (because of course), and it eventually led down the path towards a headcanon where Twilight was stuck doing her Princess-y duty in Canterlot, away from her friends. Missing being around them, and being able to see them at any moment like she could in Ponyville, Twilight searched for a way to give her friends casual, anytime access to visit her at the castle unimpeded by guards, laws, or homeland security concerns.

She found two ways: the first one was that, among her new privileges, she could choose anypony as Captain of her own Royal Guard company. One down! Now, for the other four, well... Luna had some ideas about who else had such access to a Princess's quarters...

Status:
I've had some ideas about this one becoming a stand-alone short story, with a second chapter dedicated to Twilight's conversations with each of her friends to get them in on the plan, and then a final resolution chapter.

"I've nothing to say to you, Princess."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes despite Rarity's back being turned towards me. It's one of a distressingly long list of habits I've been forced to temper once I became a princess; very early on after my coronation Celestia helpfully informed me that my body language was not quite as tactful as my spoken word barely managed to be.

Well, I mean, It's not my fault the lower courts are mind-numbingly dull by design! As necessary as it was to give equal, undivided attention to every citizen's concerns, some of them were... banal, to put is as kindly as I am physically able to.

Tangents, Sparkle! Rarity had already made her way across the throne room during my distraction, her trot as crisp and measured as it's ever been. The Royal Equestrian Marine academy had seen fit to replace the ridiculously alluring sway in Rarity's gait—a sway that could silence any a room she graced with her presence—with a purposeful, efficient stride that showed off her taut, lean muscles and betrayed her rather ineffectively concealed physical strength.

OK, so it was still ridiculously alluring. "Rarity, hold on for one second!" I finally found my voice as I galloped up to her retreating, shapely form.

...I swear that's not the only thing on my mind, seriously! At least she stopped walking away from me, so that's progress, I suppose. "One," she said, not even bothering to look my way as I caught up to her; immediately, she resumed walking.

Oh, c'mon! Celestia forgive me, I rolled my eyes. I followed after her, remaining silent as I matched her brisk pace through the winding halls of Canterlot Castle, still in a bit of a dull shock as I processed how I'd come to ruin this so quickly. As bad as what I'd done may sound, I would've expected Rarity to have a bit more faith in my integrity; this is not at all how I expected our reunion to go. In fact, a furtive look at the checklist tucked under my wing informed me that we'd barely shambled past item number two, and with the way things were going, numbers four through forty-six were in very real danger of remaining incomplete for the foreseeable future.

This was a rather distressing revelation, especially considering that I had already waited months for Rarity to come back from training. Though I was aware through her letters that her training was nearing its end, she had never given me a specific date for her return. Just an hour ago, she had made her presence at the portal to the throne room known to me with a polite cough.

Her surprise appearance (in retrospect, a rather obvious machination of the Sisters) left me with an embarrassing and catastrophic loss of control of wings and higher mental faculties. There she stood with a respectful right hoof raised to her cap in salute, and somewhat less respectful half-lidded eyes and a smile that screamed 'Yes, I know I look fabulously magnificent.' And she did! With her firmly pressed navy-blue dress uniform, gilded saber secure in its ornate scabbard, lustrous indigo mane in a tight bun and mostly hidden by a white and red cap, and a horn no longer filed down at the tip, I was at a complete loss for words to describe what I wanted to do to her her appearance.

Thanks to Celestia and Luna's conspiracy we were both spared the indignity of anypony witnessing my flying tackle-hug and possible—though unconfirmed—squealing and blubbering. Rarity reigned in her own emotions for all of three seconds before we were hugging and dancing and spinning and just generally being so very, very glad that we were in physical contact with each other again after so long.

Okay, that last bit might've been more on my side, but still.

Then, because that's my thing, I had to oh-so-casually drop the news on her without thinking about how she might react. And truthfully, the more I think about it the more I believe I should have thought it through a whole lot more than I did. It was beginning to dawn on me that Luna's suggestion might have had an edge of facetiousness to it.

I'd had a perfectly good reason for asking my friends to be my royal harem; now I just needed to convince Rarity of it.