by Knight of Lycaeus
~~~
"Cadance could I see what you've been working on?" Twilight asked pointing towards the desk. The two alicorns had been spending the day rearranging part of their shared quarters to accommodate better some of Twilight's possessions.
"No Twilight. You'll see it when it's finished" Cadance replied not even looking away from the artwork she was rearranging on the wall. "You'll see it when it's done not before, even you my wife don't have early preview either" Cadance added knowing what Twilight was attempting.
"It was worth a try."
Cadance turned to Twilight who was now standing next to her. "It might have worked if this wasn't.... actually I have no idea how many times now."
"By my count, one hundred and two times I've asked. One hundred and two times you said no. Well one hundred and one, once you almost said yes."
"One hundred and two is still a high count." as Cadance used her magic to lift over three scrolls on the desk. "Well this time my love you get a hint." She unfurled one to display a long dragon and a phoenix taking up much of the scroll while a series of characters were written in the two top corners. "A gift from the Eastern Lands, this is from Qin." She unfurled another with a pair of koi, "Nippon." The last had a winged horse that looked a little like a pegasus and a tiger, "Goryeo."
"These look amazing, I haven't seen very many of these before."
"Few in Canterlot have contacts in the Eastern Lands and these scrolls are works of art. What I'm working on has calligraphy including some from what I was taught when I lasted visited the Eastern Lands."
"So what do these mean?" Twilight asked pointing to the first scroll.
"Name of the nation on one corner, poem on the other corner." Cadance levitated some books over. "A few language guides, I could show you some to get started. But first let's finish what we started?"
Twilight nodded and walked to the other end of the room to finish rearranging the shelf of bric-a-brac.
Cadance sighed as she walked over to her desk, 'Too close. I forgot to put that away and she nearly saw it. But now she's interested in learning some new languages so she will be able read it when it's finished.' Cadance smiled looking at the unfinished heart and stars while she carefully put it away, 'It will be a nice gift for our first anniversary'.