~ Back in the Crystal Empire ~

As Discord neared what the two alicorns hoped was the ending, and feared that it was merely the mid-point, to the chimera-like creature's rant, err, speech about Luna, a strange, almost buzz-like sound filled the room, cutting him short (much to the relief of the Princesses) while simultaneously a small rectangle of soft, blue light showed up against the fur of his chest, and, almost as if he was expecting this, he pulled the layer of hair out as if it was actually an article of clothing and not his body, reached in and withdrew a seemingly tiny device- yet it also seemed to be perfectly fitted to his paw, which was dark colored and almost metallic looking, and then he pressed the side that was emitting the strange light, the object giving a weird *BEEP* in response, and then he held it up to his ear and began speaking

"Yes, Kay-Kay? What, how did I know it was you? Oh, that's an easy one; I have caller-ID!! Hmm? Oh, nevermind, you wouldn't understand... Anywho, why were you calling again? Oh, yes, that, well, good news and bad news, but can we talk in a little bit? Kinda not a good time... Oh, okay, that works!! See ya' soon! Bye..." was all the two alicorns were able to hear of the conversation he was having, then he tapped on the device again, getting another beep and dropping the thing back into his 'fur-shirt' and then he turned back towards the others, a near gleeful look in his mismatched, and a sly grin upon his muzzle, but before either of them had a chance to ask any questions, he quickly changed his expression to one of virtual sadness, and, sighing as he did so, simply said "Sorry ladies, gotta pop..." and then he did just that: he popped as if he were a balloon, except the 'debris' flashed into nothingness as it fell to the floor.

As for the two Royals seated across from each other on the floor, they sat there a moment longer, slightly shaking their heads and blinking furiously to remove the spots in their eyes that the flashes had left, before turning back towards each other, and after a momentary pause, Twilight sighed and facehoofed, then began laughing softly, her shoulders shaking in quiet mirth, then after another sigh, looked at her Sister-in-Law with an almost disappointed expression and asked with a groan, "How in the name of Faust did we fall for what he was doing? I mean, he did tell us exactly what he was doing; '... gotta pop' seriously, how!?" her own word choice and actions only fueling her amusement further, causing her to start laughing a full and proper laugh

Twilight's little reaction to how incredibly oblivious they had been to Discord's antics, albeit obviously a tad exaggerated, was just enough of a comic relief from the sheer absurdity of the day's events to get her to crack a smile and then, almost without realizing it, she too was chuckling like a madmare, and after a few more glee filled moments together, Cadance quickly schooled herself and faking a cough to help regain Twilight's attention, she asked the smaller regent, using an inquisitive, yet almost motherly tone, "So, why are you really here? You now I don't actually setup dates, I may hint at the idea and I might offer suggestions, but I can't actually get you a date with her... So, what is it that you wanted my help with, specifically?" then she stood and started to move to sit next to Twilight, but almost instantly stopped and put a forehoof to her head "Whoa, on second thought, Twilight, could you hold onto that thought for just a tad? I'm going to make some tea, my head is feeling kinda funny... While I'm at it, you want anything?"

Although their was no response of course, because ever since Twi heard Cadance ask that oh-so difficult question of "Why are you really here?" she had gone into a miniature panic mode, her brain racing to come up with semi-reasonable explanations of her intentions and ways to try and convince her Sister-in-Law to aid her, or at the very least invent reasonable excuses, and in the process she slowly became increasingly aware of the fact that she was starting to have trouble with controlling her anxiety and she also noticed that she had started shaking, a state she hadn't been in since before Discord had convinced her to go with him to see Cadance in the Crystal Empire, and then she started to ask herself 'wait, but doesn't that mean that he was- no, nevermind, question for later, I should really focus on the issue, err, topic at hoof'

"Err, yeah, chamomile tea please, oh, and a daffodil sandwich, too, if you don't mind"

As the Cadence lit her horn to begin heating the water, she stopped and tilted her head towards the ceiling, as if remembering something, then with an almost imperceptible shake of her head, she went back to brewing, when the tea and sandwiches were finished, and they had eaten a little, Cadence cleared her throat, crossed her hooves, and fixed Twilight with an interrogatively, quizzical look, and began to speak, an odd tone in her voice,

"Why, Twilight?"

This oddly worded question threw Twilight for a loop, "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean"

"Yes, you do. Why did you come here? You don't need my help with Luna, you're already friends with her, you can just used that to your advantage, but you didn't- otherwise you wouldn't be here- so, why didn't you? Why did you really come here?"

"Err, well, I suppose it was because, uh, well-"

"Ah, now I get it... You needed, or at least you wanted, my permission to try courting her... You're afraid that if you hadn't come to see me, then you would not be successful, and that I'd be disappointed that you blinding rushed into something like this... Am I at least close to being right?"

Twilight merely sagged in her chair, her face downcast, and began to speak, her voice beginning to quaver a little, "I just knew how you felt about wanted me to find that one special somepony, and that if I tried to do this on my own it would never work because I've never been in a relationship before, I don't know what to do, and then I thought that if I couldn't make it work that Luna and I wouldn't be friends anymore because we couldn't even be in the same without it becoming awkward for us, and then I remembered how throughout the years that you were my foalsitter, you basically gave lectures about how I shouldn't just chase after everypony I thought I had feelings for, and to keep a level head, and don't do anything 'til I was sure my heart and head were on the same track, but I thought that if I didn't come to you that you would think I never listened when I was young, and then you'd be disappointed that I never trusted you and... and... and I jus-"

At this point, the ever studious Alicorn had finally reached her limit, and was in tears, and Cadence had pulled her into a tight embrace, and just held her there for a few moments letting Twi take her time to calm down, and when she was sure Twilight was finished she released her sister-in-law, but still held her close and looked her in the eyes,

"Twilight, firstly; you're my sister-in-law, I know you would never ignore something like a lecture, even if it wasn't meant to be one, secondly; I am proud of you for trying to to do what you thought it was that expected you to do, however, love is different for everypony, not even I can give an all encompassing piece of advice, and as for you not knowing what to do in a relationship- guess what, neither will she! At least not the more modern aspects of relationships, so you'll both have similar problems and you'll be able to figure them out together... But again, you don't need me, trust in yourself, you're more than capable of doing it, and if it doesn't work out, don't despair, it obviously wasn't meant to be, and there will be other opportunities if she's not the one, trust me"

"Okay, Cadence, you're right, I can do this, just be myself and trust that it'll work"

"Exactly, now... Go get 'em Tiger..."

~ Private Study within Celestia's Bedchambers ~

As Celestia sat at her desk, reviewing the petitions from court yesterday (Except for Blueblood's, those she saved 'til she was absolutely certain she would be able to handle whatever his moronic bigotry and his sense of entitlement could throw her way), wearing an enchanted monocle that recorded everything that it 'saw' and then displayed the recording, and highlighted any details that she may have missed or skipped over in case she had been reading too fast or anything, just to be extra certain she didn't let anything slip through, because that had been happening more and more frequently the last few years, mainly the years since Luna's return, and had allowed more than a few of the more corrupt side of the nobility, like Blueblood and his cronies, to be able to dip their grimy, greedy little hooves into many areas and subjects that, in hindsight, they shouldn't even know about, let alone participate in...

She was, in fact, so focused on the task that she- somehow- didn't notice that nothing, save her, was moving creeping up behind her, but the shout of surprise and 8-inch thick book that slammed into Discord's head were worth it, in his opinion at least...

"Discord! What the hell were you thinking!? I ought'a-"

"Too bad you can't... 'cause-"

"It was rhetorical, seriously, I know there's nothing I can to you unless you want me to..." she growled at the draconequus, before adding in barely a whisper 'Damn chaos magic' however, she decided that he wasn't worth it, after all; he was just having a little harmless, albeit annoying, fun, and it wasn't his intention to ruin her train of thought, and scrap her progress, so, taking a deep breath, she released her anger, then tried to have a civilized conversation with the lesser god of chaos...

"Discord, why are you here?" she said dryly, putting a forehoof to her head

"Uh, you called me" he stated matter-of-factly

"That was hours ago! It's been at least thr-" she started to say, before noticing Discord's expression, and his pointer-talon aimed at the clock, which showed that only twelve minutes had passed...

"Wait, what?? How!? This doesn't... make... sen-" She said, beginning to trail off, before she caught on, her eyes narrowing slightly, "Discord... What did you do?"

"I thought I would be helpful, and give you the time needed to get your work done without having to sacrifice a portion of your day, so that way, you can have more time to do what you want to do, so I created a time bubble where time seemed to pass faster while time outside the bubble didn't pass at all... but, then I kinda got bored... Sorry 'bout that, by the way..."

"Well, oh.. okay, then... I apologize for the way I treated you just now, and thank you for trying to be helpful, I appreciate it. All I have to do now is deal with Blueblood's petitions... Actually, you want to help?"

"You sure? I don't really have any knowledge about law or anything like that..." he asked, uncertainty clear in his voice

"Trust me, once you realize how to tell his ego from his request's, anypony could handle these... But, all you have to do is use simple, dichotomous questions; If it clearly states the answer to the question, ask another question. If it doesn't answer the questions, place it in a trash-pile. If you run out of questions, put it in a separate pile for 'further review' and I'll do the same thing when I can- We need all the information to be clearly written, because if it's not in the paper then we have no evidence to confront him with if he starts using whatever he requested in a way that wasn't, or isn't, what he said he was going to use it for... I have had it with ponies like that nimrod getting away with whatever the hell they wanted! Enough's enough!!" then the Solar Regent paused, looking somewhat confused, then proceeded "Uh, so, how did it go with Twi? Did she suspect anything? Was I right?"

"Geez! Slow down, one question at a time, I can't answer twenty million questions and do this at the same time!" he exclaimed, dropping some of the petitions in order to do an innocent, yet defensive pose, "Firstly; I think it went okay, Secondly; I have no idea, I think she doesn't know, but I can't know for certain without revealing the truth, in which case it wouldn't matter anymore! And thirdly, yes, you were right- uh, for the most part... You said that you suspected she was homosexual, and you were right in that regard, but as to having to 'convince,' or whatever it was that you said, don't bother- she's already head over hooves..."

"Well... That solves one problem... Now, how are we gonna get them to admit it to each other? Hmm, this might be even more difficult now than before..."

"Hmm, How so?"

"Well, before, we didn't have to factor in Twilight's nervousness... However, now that I now they are both hopelessly infatuated with each other, we need to consider how Twilight will be nervous, and probably awkward, around Luna- not to mention how she will be deathly afraid of being rejected"

"Which one was that last statement about?"

"Yes"

"Wha....... Actually, fair point..."

"This is going to be more difficult than expected, also, did Cadance say anything that could compromise- NO! For the last time: We are NOT calling it Operation TwiLuna!!"

Author's Notes:

Honestly, the hardest part about writing this chapter was describing a phone from the perspective of the ponies... Everything else; Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!

Oh! Sorry about the pacing, it is, was, and always will be an issue of mine...
And, please, comment any hints, suggestions (story and/or writing format), potential ideas, etc.
I wish for this to be more than me, I want to be us... Together...

Bye, Bye! See y'all next time! Love you*!!!!!

~ T.B.B. ~

*only, you know: platonically....