Stellar smiled as they walked through the streets of Ponyville. "I can't describe how nice this is... I mean, for the longest time, I thought... you needed me, and that was important." She veered a little, walking quite close to Sunburst. "You were my little lost foal... But you're not that, you're something even better."
He perked an ear at her, one hoof raised to his glasses. "What am I now?"
"You are my son." She tilted her head. "My friend, and my wonderfully amazing creation. You... are not living the life I would personally have chosen, but you are also not... me, so that's perfectly fine." She wriggled her nose. "I feel like I'm being quite awkward about this."
He dared to take a step into her, thumping his side against her side. "You're being perfect is what you're being." His smile grew more sincere as they walked. "Today, I want to do what you want to do. You've been shadowing me, it's about time you had a turn."
Her smile broke. "Oh, dear, I hadn't planned for that. Can we do that tomorrow? I appreciate the offer, and will gladly take it up when I'm ready."
He nodded firmly. "Tomorrow then, so... uh... may I ask you something?"
She cocked a brow. "You've been doing that so far. Is something wrong?" Her eagle eyes ran over him. "We are friends, go ahead."
"Right, friends." He ran his hoof along his collar. "Well, when dad first... How did he let you know he was, you know... interested?"
Of all the questions, that was not the one she had running through her mind. Her ears went up as her eyes widened. "Oh! Well..." She cleared her throat. "He approached me in a very... specific fashion that he had calculated was effective in my specific case." She gestured at herself, then at Sunburst. "As you can see, he was correct. Each... time is a special thing. If you... have a mare you are interested in, or a stallion! You should consider how they would want to be approached."
"How they want to be approached," he echoed thoughtfully. "Right, um, thanks. For now..."
They walked off together in pursuit of a pleasant day.
Twilight flopped onto her cushion with a tired sigh. "Spike, do I have any appointments between now and tomorrow afternoon?"
Spike saluted before flying up to snatch a scroll from a shelf and unfurling it with a flick, letting it roll onto the ground. "Well, let's see... You have to grade the papers from second period." He tapped at the scroll as he enumerated various responsibilities. "Huh, you have an eleven-AM social event."
Twilight blinked at that. "I don't remember that. Who with?"
"Doesn't say." He shrugged helplessly. "Just a time and place. It's flagged high priority though."
Twilight sat up with a little frown. "I wouldn't make an appointment without saying who it's with. Did you write that one down, Spike?"
"I don't remember doing that." He shrugged softly. "Well, it doesn't push anything else out of the way."
"Well, where is it?" Twilight rolled a hoof at Spike. "Maybe that will be a hint."
Spike lowered the scroll enough to peer at Twilight over the top. "It's in the eleventh library."
"Eleventh... oh!" She turned to look upwards at where the library was. "That's where Sunburst and I are working..." An ear skewed to the side. "Did I make a promise to Sunburst and forgot?" She shook her head quickly. "Well, good thing I keep track of these things on the schedule. I'll be certain to be there. We've been making good progress."
Spike raised the scroll back in the way, hiding a soft snicker. He had some idea what could be happening.
Twilight trotted down the hallway, stopping when she saw a scrap of paper affixed to the wall. "What is one plus one?" she read from it with a quirked brow. Her horn glowed as she plucked it free, but there was another waiting to be seen. "What if the answer could be greater than two?" she read as she snatched the paper, shaking her head.
"It is time to form a party." "This adventure may end well, or not, but it is worth the attempt." "What I'm trying to ask..."
As she read the last one, she had reached the library. She plucked the paper free and tucked it away, looking to the slightly ajar door that led into the library. Curiosity burned in her as she reached for the door, not with her magic but with a hoof, gently nudging it open.
"Will you j-join my group?" asked a nervously smiling Sunburst. He was dressed ridiculously. His mane was done up in a long flowing ponytail and his actual tail was braided. Instead of his robe he seemed to be wearing a flowing dress that looked suited for dancing. Hovering beside him was a long staff.
Twilight blinked slowly at the sight, the papers falling free of her magic to scatter on the ground. "S-Sunburst?"
He raised a hoof as he coughed softly. "Y-yes, but also a noble acrobat. I would... like to cordially invite you." He stood up and grabbed the floating staff, trying to swirl it around as smoothly as he imagined his character did. He was not as agile as his character by far, and with a mighty crash, flopped to the ground, the staff rolling away.
Twilight hurried forward, helping him sit up. "Sunburst! I mean... This is... What are you asking... exactly?"
Sunburst sat up with her help, smiling with a little laugh. "Well, um, I was... trying to be... Well... Twilight Sparkle."
"Yes?"
"I want to try dating you. There, I said it, no problem." It was only after he said those words that it struck him. He had just proposed to Twilight Sparkle, Princess, high wizard. "Um... if you..."
Twilight's eyes were getting wider and wider. She fell back on her haunches, staring at him. "I... I mean... Oh Celestia, I have no experience in this stage of friendship!" She hopped up to her hooves, her horn glowing as she grabbed for books in the room. "What is the proper response for this situation?! Wait here!" She suddenly burst from the room, galloping away in a tizzy.
Sunburst blinked at the empty space that had held Twilight. "That... went well?" He wasn't sure how to rate how that had went. Twilight hadn't denied him. It could have been worse.
Twilight drew in ragged gulps of breath as she manically flipped through books, searching for an answer. "There has to be one... Where did I put it!?"
"He asked, huh?" Starlight walked in from the door leading out of that particular library. "And you responded about as well as I imagined you would."
"Starlight!" She vanished, only to appear beside Starlight, throwing herself at her fellow spellcaster. "Tell me you have practical experience with the courtship rituals of the average pony."
Starlight hiked a brow. "There are no average ponies anywhere in this castle, that much I feel certain of." She poked Twilight right on the nose. "And we're not animals with rigidly defined 'courtship rituals'."
"Of course we're animals," argued Twilight with a roll of her eyes. "What do you think we are, plants? Please! You have to know!"
Starlight applied a hoof to her face. "First step, calm down. He's still Sunburst."
"R-right, Sunburst..." She raised a hoof and slowly extended it in time with her breath as Cadance has showed her. "Just Sunburst, a stallion that's proposed to me."
Starlight raised a brow. "He asked you to marry him?"
Twilight blinked softly. "What? Oh, no. He... wanted to begin courting me."
"Then that isn't a proposal, at least not the big one." She tapped Twilight's rapidly swelling and contracting chest. "Calm down. You know who he is. He won't do a thing that you don't let him do."
"R-right... but I'm not worried about what he will do!" She threw her hooves wide apart. "I'm afraid of what I will do! I don't know how to handle this! I mean, I've read books, um, fiction... about ponies... kissing... and... things like that."
Starlight's eyelids lowered as she smirked. "Oh, so you've read romances before? Great, now throw that away. He isn't some lost prince and even if you happen to be a princess, those won't help. He's just a friend that wants to try a little more. He wants to treat you like a princess, no matter what your title happens to be. He wants to go do fun things with you. He wants to be a friend that a kiss on the lips isn't off the table with."
Twilight suddenly grabbed at Starlight's shoulders. "Stop telling me what not to do and tell me what to do!"
Starlight's horn glowed as she tried to nudge Twilight back, but the panicked princess would not be warded so easily. "Calm down, do that, please. Let's approach this calmly, like two adult ponies."
"Yes, of course, two adult ponies." She pulled back her hooves and flopped onto her haunches. "I left him there! He must think I'm a terrible pony." She clopped a hoof on the side of her head. "I'm not doing this right at all!"
"No one does," assured Starlight with a little smile. "Slow breaths. He's more worried that he messed up than anything you did, I promise. Now, first thing's first."
"What's that?" She looked at Starlight with hopeful eyes, as if the answer to all of the issues were coming.
"Do you actually like him or not? Do you want to try dating him or is it time to let him down gently?" She rolled a hoof softly. "Don't feel obligated either way, but since you're asking my opinion, I think this could be a great chance for you to at least try."
"Have you had a coltfriend?" Twilight leaned in all the closer. "How did it go? Did you have foals?!" The last was almost a squeak, her voice lapsing into hysterics.
"Twilight, really... do I look like I've had a foal? Have you ever seen a foal around?"
"That's no guarantee!" squeaked Twilight as she shook her head. "I mean... alright, so... how did it go?"
Starlight softly coughed into a hoof. "I've had a coltfriend before... When I was, you know, kind of ruling a town in my perverted view of a utopia, I was the most eligible mare there... I had my pick." She shook her head slowly. "That wasn't... you know, healthy. I had fun, and so did they, I think, but maybe someday I'll try it without the whole power complex angle that kind of colored the whole thing."
Twilight threw up a hoof. "How is that different from what Sunburst is proposing right now?! I'm a princess, his princess. I have clear and obvious--"
Starlight popped a hoof into Twilight's mouth. "Calm down. One, you're not his princess. He's Cadance's. Two, he really likes you for you, not your title. If you stopped being a princess, he'd only like you more, not less. And finally, three, I'm fairly certain you're not going to throw him in jail if he messes up, and he knows that. You are a mare who happens to be a princess, not his princess."
"Not... his princess..." She tilted her head a little. "I mean, that's not exactly true, but I think... I see what you mean." She took one more slow breath with an extending hoof. "We're friends, and have been, without the whole... title in the way. Plenty of ponies treat me as Twilight Sparkle, random unicorn. Some of them don't even seem to notice I have wings now, and that's fine, he can be one of them, alright, sure... What do I do next?"
Starlight began to wonder if she had made the right decision in encouraging Sunburst to take the next step. "You can go back to where you left him and apologize for running off and talk about it?"