//------------------------------// // Note/Circles - Twiluna Collab // Story: Ultra's Hot Shots // by ultra1437 //------------------------------// Celestia found herself awake, sitting up and panting hard in the middle of the night. She had this unexplained feeling that a storm was brewing, despite the weather forecast saying otherwise. Fearing something was wrong, she got out of bed and headed into the bathroom. After a glass of water and spending a few minutes in front of the mirror, the feeling went away. Sufficiently calmed down, Celestia headed back to bed and was quickly asleep again. Little did she know, her feeling was right. Night Court was boring. Princess Luna knew that much after several months. With her court’s hours in the middle of the night, hardly anypony outside her own Nocti came to see her. “Herald, I am done with this farce for the night. Night Court is over until tomorrow night,” she spoke. Her herald nodded and signaled to the guards around the room. Luna sighed defeatedly before getting up and walking out of the throne room. She soon found herself wandering the gardens. Absentmindedly she spoke, “Alas, I wonder if dear Twilight is still awake? She does seem to spend some time during mine moonlit hours.” The wind kicked up and Luna felt something pass through her mane. As she turned to see what had gotten caught up, something else tapped her chest. Her mane forgotten, she looked down to her peytral and found a little white note stuck to it. The wind died down, almost so the note wouldn’t get blown away. She plucked it off herself and held it up to her nose. ‘I don’t know what this is,’ it read. The wind kicked up again and she felt a tap on one of her wings, followed closely by two taps on her head, one on her neck, and one on her flank. The mysterious wind died down and she noticed she had more notes stuck to her. She scooped them up and read them. ‘Pretty wing,’ the one on her wing read, the original one, stuck in her mane read, ‘Beautiful mane’. One stuck to her horn was simply ‘Long horn,’ followed by what appeared to be a heart. Thoroughly confused, she started walking as she read the rest. ‘Adorable ear’ brought a blush to her cheeks and was followed by two simple ones, ‘Neck’ and ‘Crown’. The one stuck to her flank had been simply the words ‘Beautiful, shapely flanks’ and turned her blushing cheeks to a full-fledged body blush. ‘Applebucking thighs’ read the one attached to a rear leg, and Luna was quickly becoming hot under the collar, so to speak. Before she could read the last one, the wind kicked up once more and blew the notes into her face. A final note was stuck directly to her nose and the wind stopped again. ‘Cute face’ it read. Luna reared up in surprise. Before anything else could happen, Luna, her fur more purple than blue currently, took off out of the gardens in a full gallop, subconsciously grabbing all the white notes she’d found. Except one. A nearby bush had a lone white note on it, ‘Hiding bush’, from which a magenta glow occasionally flashed. “Good morrow, sister!” Luna called out as Celestia entered the dining hall. As she sat next to her sister, Celestia thought Luna looked different. Happier, perhaps. “‘Tia, I have encountered the strangest conundrum last night. I had called off Night Court early and ventured out into the gardens. Every time the wind seemed to kick up, I found myself bearing these white notes.” Luna offered a few to her sister to inspect. Celestia looked them over. ‘Let’s see what these are all about. ‘Neck’, ‘Cute face’, ‘Adorable ear’? Oh Twilight. I see you’ve fallen quite hard for her. Do I tell Luna, though?’ As she was thinking, another note appeared, silently and softly sticking itself to Celestia, this time. Luna noticed and picked it up. “Luna, I–” “‘Tia! Another note! This one was on you!” Luna exclaimed, all but shoving the note into her sister’s face. ‘Big, white, squishy teacher’ she read before chuckling. Her chuckling turned into laughing, and further evolved into full-on immobilizing guffaws as she laid on her back on the floor. Luna, who didn’t understand the joke, shot a queer look at Celestia. After a few minutes, Celestia calmed down and sat upright again. “She wiped a tear away from her eye with a wingtip. “Oh Twilight… never change.” “Twilight…” Luna repeated softly. Celestia almost missed it. Celestia’s ears pinned back. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag now. Yes, this was all Twilight’s doing. She has this habit of flirting with ponies she likes, like this.” “‘Tia, I-what?” Celestia looked over to see Luna’s truly confused expression. She was lost, floundering, and not entirely sure if this was a joke or not. “Let me explain,” Celestia spoke. Luna gratefully nodded and set the notes off to the side. “Until relatively recently, Twilight’s pretty much been a recluse, that much you know.” Luna nodded. “Only when you came back did she have any friends that weren’t myself, Spike, her brother, or Princess Cadance.” That shocked Luna, she thought Twilight had more friends than that before that fateful Summer Sun Celebration. “Well, when she was younger, she took a liking of myself and Cadance. Instead of facing her fears and trying to ask one of us to be her special somepony, she used sticky notes.” Celestia pointed at the little pile on the table. “In fact, these are likely from the same pad from those years ago…” Luna nodded, following along. “Well, neither of us knew who kept putting these little notes on us for a few days, until we compared notes, so to speak.” Celestia looked out a window, sighing wistfully. “In hindsight, I should’ve recognized her hornwriting earlier, but that’s beside the point.” Celestia pointed to the notes. “She was crushing on myself and then Cadance, hard.” Celestia’s ears pinned back and her tone turned sorrowful. “I will admit, the attention and compliments were nice, but… she was still a young filly, and my student. She eventually grew out of the phase, but I believe Cadance spoke to her about it as well. The notes seemed to stop suddenly.” “‘Tia, what are you saying?” Celestia looked her sister in the eyes. “I’ll put this simply. Twilight is flirting with you.” “Flirting?” Luna tilted her head to the side very slightly. A note appeared in between them. Luna snagged it. ‘Flirting, the act of trying to catch a specific pony’s attention romantically.’ “I see,” was all Luna said after reading the note. She suddenly leaned closer and whispered into her sister’s ear. “How do I let her know that I wish to be with her romantically?” Celestia’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second. She whispered back, “You could try finding her and asking her yourself, or…” Celestia’s horn lit and a pad of blue notes appeared. “You could flirt back…” She winked. Luna smiled. “I shall do just that, ‘Tia.” She wrapped Celestia in a big hug before snagging the note pad and taking off. Celestia sighed happily. “Ah, young love…” A final note appeared, blue, not white, before settling down on Celestia’s muzzle. ‘Thank you, best sister ever’ it read.