“What was it like returning to Equestria after so much time?” the reporter asked.

“It was… surprising,” Luna answered, thinking back to that fateful Summer Sun Celebration. “Once Twilight Sparkle and her friends restored me to my proper state of mind, I expected to be locked away. Instead, I was made a guest of honor at the Celebration.”

“It was only right that our subjects become reacquainted with their princess of the night,” Celestia added.

Luna nodded. “My reception in Ponyville was unexpected, to say the least. I do not think they realized I was once the Nightmare Moon of legend, but even so, the way they accepted me that day gave me hope that I could leave my past behind me.”

“And have you?”

“Well,” Luna said, “all I can ask is that Equestria give me a second chance.”

Another week, another day at the spa. That’s how Rarity liked to look at it, anyway. As much as she enjoyed creating fashion masterpieces, it did take a lot out of her over time, and her weekly get-together with Fluttershy helped her get the break she needed to keep her mind sharp.

Being able to talk about her secret admirer was nice, too.

“Would you believe he sent me another note today?” Rarity asked while one of the workers poured water over hot rocks. “Oh, and it’s the best one yet!”

“How nice,” Fluttershy agreed. “I wonder who it could be?”

“Well, I won’t have to wait much longer to find out,” Rarity said. “He asked me to meet him at the café this evening!” Rarity couldn’t help but clap her hooves together at the thought.

“I’m happy for you,” said Fluttershy with a smile.

“Oh, thank you, darling. I do hope he’s as charming in person as he is in his letters,” she added as the two left the sauna toward a worker preparing their mud masks. “You know how some ponies are—dashing and eloquent in writing, but when they have to talk to somepony face-to-face, they just freeze up!”

“Oh, um, yes.”

“But I don’t think he’ll be one of those ponies,” Rarity continued as the worker covered her face in green goop. “What do you think?”

“Well, um, I think whoever your admirer is, they must be feeling a bit nervous,” Fluttershy said.

“Nervous? Whatever do you mean?”

Fluttershy tapped the floor with a hoof. “Well, if I was going to meet somepony I cared about for the first time, I’d be nervous about it.”

“Well, yes, dear, but you’re nervous about just about everything. No offense,” she added quickly.

Fluttershy ducked behind her mane. “No, it’s okay, you’re right.”

Rarity spent the rest of the afternoon speculating about her admirer—what he might look like, what he might wear, and so forth. Fluttershy said little more than “Of course” and “Oh?” until they were leaving the spa. “Um, Rarity?”

“Yes, dear, what is it?”

“Um… well, what if this admirer isn’t everything you’ve imagined?” Fluttershy asked. “What if they’re not that into fashion or a perfect gentlepony?”

“Well, just because he’s not exactly what I’ve imagined doesn’t mean he isn’t a gentlecolt,” Rarity replied. “I can’t imagine a stallion who can write the kind of things he’s written to me being anything less.”

A loud thud brought Rarity to a halt and sent Fluttershy scurrying for cover. A large stack of bricks had just plummeted from the sky and landed in front of them. “Sorry!” a voice called from above. Rarity could see a pony with a rust-colored coat looking at her from a platform thirty feet above.

“Hey, Mason!” another voice called from another platform. Rarity saw a group of three construction ponies watching the scene unfold. “Next time, just whistle when a pretty mare walks by!”

“It wasn’t on purpose!” the pony called Mason shouted back.

“Uh huh.” The construction pony turned his attention from Mason to Rarity. “Hey, sorry about Mason. He’s hopeless when it comes to the ladies, you know what I mean?”

Rarity was too busy coaxing Fluttershy out from under a table to pay them any mind. “Come on, dear. It’s all right.” Fluttershy crawled out on shaky legs. “Looks like you could use another trip to the spa,” Rarity observed.

“Are you two okay?” Rarity turned to see Mason standing beside them, his black mane and tail glistening with sweat.

“We’re fine, no thanks to you,” Rarity said with a glare.

“I swear, it was an accident,” Mason said, his ears flattening against his head.

“Accident or not, you really should be more careful.”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

“Hey, Mason, don’t you think you’ve done enough flirting for one day?” the ponies called from the platform. Mason’s ears flattened even more, and he returned to the stack of bricks.

“Come along, Fluttershy,” Rarity said. “Let’s get you home.”

Rarity was in the middle of putting together her outfit for the evening when Rainbow Dash walked into the boutique. “Hey, you busy?” the pegasus asked.

“No, not at all,” Rarity replied, setting aside the hats she’d been juggling in her magic. “If you’re looking for Scootaloo, she and Sweetie Belle have gone to Sweet Apple Acres to work on their science project.”

“Actually, I wanted to place an order,” said Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be standing as far away from any of Rarity’s dresses as possible. “Think you can make another flight suit like the one you made me for Nightmare Night?”

“Of course, but why do you need another one?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow. “You didn’t destroy the last one in some daredevil stunt, did you?”

“Oh, it’s not for me.” Rainbow Dash pulled a sheet of paper out of her saddle bag. “It’s for Scootaloo. I want it to be a surprise.”

“I see. Well, I’ll need some excuse to get her measurements,” said Rarity.

“I got it covered,” Dash answered, giving Rarity the sheet of paper. “Twilight looked up dressmaking measurements in one of her books, and I told Scoots I needed to measure her for aerodynamics or something.”

Rarity looked over the sheet. “Hmm. Well, I must say I’m impressed, Rainbow Dash. That filly isn’t turning you soft, is she?”

“No way!” Dash cried with a lopsided grin and a shake of her head. “If anything, my awesomeness is rubbing off on her more and more every day.”

“Indeed.”

Dash walked across the room and looked at Rarity’s outfit ideas, which were little more than a series of hats. “What’s with all this?”

“It’s for this evening,” Rarity explained. “I have an engagement with a secret admirer tonight at the café, and I want to make sure I look my best.”

“Secret admirer, huh?” Dash drifted across the room and nudged her with an elbow. “Any idea who it is?”

“No,” Rarity said with a sigh, “but whoever it is, he’s sure to be a real gentlecolt.”

“Who said it was a he?”

Rarity frowned as she turned to face her friend. “What do you mean?”

“Well, did they say they were a stallion in any of these notes you keep talking about?” Dash asked.

“Well, no, but I don’t think—”

“Maybe that’s your problem,” Dash suggested as she picked up one of Rarity’s hat’s and looked it over. “Maybe he is actually a she, and maybe she’s been right next to you this whole time. Heck, she could even be Fluttershy, for all we know.”

“Rainbow Dash, stop that this instant!”

“What?” Rainbow Dash put the hat down and shrugged. “You two already have a weekly date at the spa! Not to mention her modeling for you; I mean, everypony knows how much she hates being in the spotlight.”

“That’s beside the point. It’s impolite to speculate on the affections of others,” said Rarity as she turned her attention back to her outfit.

“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing all week?”

Rarity whirled around to give Rainbow Dash a piece of her mind only to find the pegasus fighting to hide a smile. Upon seeing Rarity’s face, Dash burst into laughter and fell to the floor. “Very funny,” Rarity muttered.

“Aw, lighten up. You’re taking this whole admirer thing way too seriously,” Dash said, wiping tears from her eyes.

“Says the pegasus who once let her fan club get to her head,” Rarity shot back.

“Hey, I can’t help it if everypony thinks I’m awesome,” Dash replied as she got to her hooves. “So, you can do the flight suit, right?”

“Of course. It should be ready in a few days.”

“Awesome. Well, I got some stuff to do,” Dash said, walking toward the door. “Good luck on your date!”

Rarity eventually settled on a simple yellow sunhat and made her way to the café. She was a little early and decided to pass the time picking out who could be her admirer. The couples she ruled out immediately, but that still left a few stallions sitting by themselves. None of them looked like likely candidates, but she tried not to be too hasty in her judgment. “A gentlecolt is a gentlecolt at heart, no matter his appearance,” she muttered to herself. After several minutes of observing the single stallions in the café, she decided to relax and wait to see who approached her.

“Hello?”

The voice was soft, but it was right behind her, and it was enough to make her jump. The yellow pegasus who’d spoken jumped as well and scrambled back into a neighboring table, knocking over an older businesspony’s drink. “Ohmigoodness, I’m so sorry!” the pegasus cried, backing away in the opposite direction and into another table. “Oh, m-my fault, I’m so sorry—”

“Fluttershy!” Rarity stopped her friend before she could bump into anypony else.

“O-oh, um, hi Rarity. I hope I’m not interrupting anything—”

“It’s all right, dear,” Rarity said. “Come sit down for a moment. You look completely frazzled.”

Fluttershy took the seat across from Rarity, still hiding behind her mane from the angry glares. “I’m so sorry for startling you,” she said, her voice a little softer than usual. “It’s just, well, I wasn’t sure you’d show up, so when I saw you, I just got so excited, and… well, I couldn’t help myself. I’m such a loudmouth sometimes…”

“Not at all, darling,” Rarity replied. “So, how was your day?”

“Oh, it was fine,” Fluttershy said. “Although, I was worried about whether or not I’d find you here.”

“Oh?” Rainbow Dash’s words echoed in her mind, but she shoved them aside. She knew better than to take the pegasus’ pranks seriously.

“Well, you see… well, I’m not really sure where to start,” Fluttershy said, poking at the fork in front of her. “I mean, we’ve been friends for so long, and, well…”

“If you have something to tell me, darling, go right ahead,” Rarity said. Outwardly she was smiling, but inwardly her stomach was busy tying knots with the rest of her organs.

“O-okay.” Fluttershy took a deep breath before continuing. “Well, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you for a while now, but… well, I didn’t really know how to ask.”

Rarity felt her smile start to waver as she adjusted her water glass. “And what question might that be?”

Fluttershy took another deep breath and closed her eyes. “Do you think you can bring Opal over a day early next week?”

Rarity’s smile vanished, along with any idea she thought she had about what was going on. “Pardon?”

Fluttershy retreated behind her mane. “Oh, I knew you’d be upset.”

“No! Not at all.” Rarity forced herself to laugh and to stop fidgeting with her soup spoon. “It’s just… is there a reason you need me to bring her a day early?”

“Um, well, Zecora agreed to help me find some healing herbs next week, but she can only do it on Wednesday, which is when you said you’d bring Opal in for her check-up,” Fluttershy explained. “But I know you usually go gem hunting with Spike on Tuesday, and I didn’t want to inconvenience you.”

“Oh, you needn’t worry about that,” Rarity said, her laugh coming more naturally this time. “Of course I’ll bring Opal by on Tuesday.”

“Oh, good.” Fluttershy emerged from her mane with a smile. “Well, I’d better get home. I don’t want you to miss your date.”

“Take care, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy stood and walked away. Rarity sighed and buried her head in her forelegs. “The next time I see Rainbow Dash…”

“Good evening.”

Rarity’s head shot up. Across the table stood the construction pony—Mason, was it?—who’d almost crushed her with a pile of bricks earlier. “Hello,” she answered. “Can I help you?”

“Depends,” Mason replied as he took a seat opposite her. “Do your eyes still hold more sparkle than the purest star sapphire?”

Rarity’s mouth hung open as she stared at the pony across from her. “T-that was you?”

Mason smiled. “It’s cheesy, I know.”

“B-but… how?”

“Well, I took a piece of paper and a pencil—”

“That’s not what I meant!” Rarity snapped before taking a deep breath to regain her composure. “It’s just… I never expected such eloquence from a simple construction pony.”

Mason nodded as he finished taking a drink from the glass in front of him. “It makes sense, I guess. You’re so classy and glamorous, and I’m… well, the pony who drops bricks on unsuspecting mares.”

“What I mean is… that’s not what I meant.” Rarity couldn’t help but blush. It wasn’t like her to get so flustered, but after everything that had happened, how could she avoid it? She took a drink of her own while she organized her thoughts.

“You’re trying to figure out what a construction pony like me sees in a fashionista like you?” Mason guessed before she could finish. Rarity nodded and set her glass back down. “Well, believe it or not, I’m just as much an artist as you are. You design clothes, I design buildings.”

“You’re an architect?” Rarity asked. Mason nodded. “But then why did the others tease you about dropping the bricks?”

“They were teasing me because it was you,” Mason replied. “I don’t mind, it’s all in good fun,” he added before Rarity could express her outrage at their behavior. “I really am sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to put you or your friend in danger.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Rarity said, dabbing her lips with her napkin. “Accidents happen, after all—though you really should be more careful.”

“Yes, well, can I help it if the most beautiful mare in Ponyville sweeps me off my hooves?”

Rarity giggled at the compliment, but only for a moment. “Well, I appreciate your affection, but I do have one question for you.”

“Fire away.”

“It’s just that I really don’t know anything about you,” Rarity explained. “I’m not sure how much you know about me, either.”

“Not much,” Mason answered, straightening the silverware Fluttershy had left lying askew.

“Then before we go any further, I must ask you this,” said Rarity. “Just what is it you’re expecting out of this encounter?”

Mason nodded and smiled again. Now that she thought about it, he was rather attractive. “To fix the problem you pointed out,” he answered. “I admire your beauty and grace, but I’d like to get to know you better.” He looked down at the table and nudged his fork to the side before glancing back up at her. “I hoped you would like to do the same with me.”

Rarity considered his proposition. In all her daydreaming, she’d never imagined her admirer would be a construction pony, even if he was an architect. Still, a gentlecolt was a gentlecolt, even if he spent his days on scaffolding thirty feet in the air. “I suppose one can never have too many acquaintances,” she said at last. “Besides, I don’t believe I’ve ever talked at length with a construction pony.”

“I’m happy to oblige,” Mason said, leaning on the table. It was only when he relaxed that Rarity suddenly realized how nervous he’d been. “Since I’m the reason you’re here, I think it’s only fair I pay for the meal. Would you like something to eat?”

Rarity returned his smile and nodded. “I would be honored.”