Auntie Tia's Matchmaking Service

by Shaslan

Chapter 29

“I’m so happy for you both.” Twilight Sparkle’s eyes were big with tears, and Lustre Dawn felt Little Cheese’s hoof tighten on her own.

She slid out of her seat and trotted over to her mentor, and pulled the vast purple alicorn down into a hug. “Thank you, Princess Twilight.”

After she let go, Twilight wiped away a tear with one golden-shod hoof. “Thank you both for coming to tell me. I really appreciate it.”

Lustre retreated to Little Cheese’s side, and the small smile Cheese gave her sent a little thrill through her body. Even now, a week after it had happened, she could still hardly believe her good luck.

Looking back to the Princess, who was still smiling that slightly watery smile, Lustre’s heart felt full. “I want to thank you too, Princess.”

Twilight looked shocked. “But — for what?”

Tears pricking at her own eyes, Lustre smiled up at her. “For showing me the magic of friendship, Princess. If it wasn’t for you — if you hadn’t sent me back to Mum’s school — I’d still be in Canterlot library.” She turned to look into Little Cheese’s emerald eyes. “I would never have known that there was more to life than spells and studying.”

“That means I owe you thanks too, Princess,” Little Cheese added, her higher-pitched voice providing the perfect counterpoint to Lustre’s alto. “If you hadn’t sent Lustre to Ponyville I’d never have met her. We owe you big-time.” A small smile played across her face. “Maybe I should ask my mum to throw you a thank-you party.”

Laughing, Twilight raised a hoof to her mouth. “Thank you, Little Cheese — but I think poor Pinkie’ll be busy enough with the wedding planning.”

Little Cheese giggled. “You’re probably right.”

Twilight spread a single wing in warning. “A word of caution, though — Pinkie does brilliantly with weddings, but if I were you I’d make sure she doesn’t go too bananas with yours. I’ve had more than my fair share of Pinkie Pie parties that end with me covered in cake batter fired from a cannon.”

“I’ve known that feeling too,” Lustre Dawn added, grinning at her marefriend. No — her fiancee. She still wasn’t used to that new word. And before too long it would be another new word. Wife.

Shrugging delicately, Little Cheese pushed her curls back from her face. “I’ve learned that no one can really stop Mum. She’s…well, she’s a force of nature. But don’t worry — the cake is the one thing that I do intend to keep control of.”

“It’s going to be cheesecake!” Lustre Dawn leaned towards Twilight in excitement. “Little Cheese’s favourite. A foretaste of Little Cheese’s Little Cheesecakes.”

Twilight smiled wider. “Well, I can’t wait to taste it. And once your cafe opens here in Canterlot, Little Cheese, I’d love to appoint you the official cheesecake supplier to the crown.”

As one, Little Cheese and Lustre gasped. “Really?”

“Really,” Twilight confirmed. “It’s an honour that the two of you more than deserve.”

Beaming, Lustre Dawn clutched Little Cheese’s hooves and shared a quick nuzzle with her. She could hardly believe how well all their plans were going. It was like she had somehow stepped into a dream world.

“Am I the last pony you needed to tell?” asked Twilight, her tone curious. “I’m very sorry that my diary was so booked up the last couple of weeks.”

“No,” Little Cheese answered for both of them. “There was one other Canterlot pony we needed to tell.”

“Ah.” Twilight understood at once. “Well, you had better hurry along, then. This is news she won’t want to wait to hear.”

---

“And here is where the counter will go, right here.” Little Cheese was almost singing the words, her voice alight with excitement. “And here is where I’ll have the display cabinet for the really big cakes — and just over here is where we’ll put the tables.”

Lustre Dawn spun around as she followed the pointing hooves, a grin covering her face from ear to ear. “I can’t wait to get started on it all with you, Little Cheese. I’m not very good at carpentry, but I’m so excited to try!”

A giggle answered her. “No, silly — we’ve got professional carpenters coming. This needs to look right. We only get one shot at a grand opening.”

“Of course,” Lustre laughed. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“But you haven’t even seen the best part!” Little Cheese seized her by the hoof and the two of them galloped away from the plate glass windows at the front of the shop and towards the stairs at the back.

They pounded up the white stone steps, made from marble like all the buildings in Canterlot. Side by side, they emerged into a large white room, bigger even than the cafe downstairs by virtue of the old building’s bulging walls.

“I have so many ideas for this room,” Little Cheese began. “I thought we could maybe paint one wall yellow, like a feature wall — I thought it would match your eyes.”

Before Lustre could even coo over the sweetness of the thought, she was hauled onwards again, up past the third floor and onto the fourth. Little Cheese pushed her towards the door. “Go on, open it.”

Hesitantly, Lustre Dawn opened the door, and gasped as she looked inside. The room was a perfect circle, with windows on every side. Light flooded into the room, illuminating it with all the colours of the Canterlot afternoon. “This is gorgeous! What’s this room going to be? Our bedroom?”

“No; that’s downstairs.” Little Cheese blushed prettily as she gestured around them. “Actually, I thought this room could be yours. I was going to ask the carpenters to come up here, too, and put in bookshelves. All around the walls—” she span as she spoke, pointing to her visualised shelves. “—Apart from just there, where I was going to suggest that we put your desk.”

Lustre Dawn’s heart swelled. “A library, just for me?”

“And a study!” Little Cheese beamed at her. “You’ll need to put all your books somewhere, right? And have somewhere to write your papers.” She came closer and took Lustre by the hooves. “This is going to be more than a cheesecake cafe, Lustre. This is going to be our home. Both of us.”

For the first time that day, tears spilled down Lustre’s cheek as she pressed her muzzle hard into Little Cheese’s cheek. “I love it.”

“And I love you.” Little Cheese tapped her softly on the nose. “Now come on! This was only meant to be a whistle-stop tour. We’re late for Auntie Tia!”

---

“Truly?” Celestia’s heart was full. “You’re both ready?”

Lustre Dawn and Little Cheese, seated before her on the settee, smiled at one another.

“Yes,” Lustre answered. “She makes me laugh. I think I never really understood fun till I met Cheese.”

“And she makes me happy,” Little Cheese added. “Laughter is great — but you need real, deep happiness behind it too.”

Lustre Dawn nodded and pressed her hoof over her fiancee’s. “We just came from telling Princess Twilight. She offered to officiate, but I said that I’d rather just have her there as my mentor, and as one of my parents.” A fond smile crossed her face. “She cried a little bit.”

Celestia didn’t feel entirely dry-eyed herself. “I can imagine.”

“Actually, Princess,” Lustre Dawn said with a touch of hesitancy, “We were kind of hoping, if it’s not too much to ask, if you would be willing to do the ceremony.”

Celestia’s smile was wide enough almost to hurt. Her little ponies never ceased to amaze her with the love they could show her.

“I would be more than honoured. Thank you. Both of you.”

Later, after the tears were dry and the goodbyes said, Celestia watched them go. Side by side, two little mares, united against the world. Her eyes brimming with emotion, Celestia smiled as she shut the pale blue door behind them.

Even after all this time, after all these years…she was still helping them. Even after she had retired from the throne, given away her power, still her ponies came to her, with problems as dear to them as ever the national conflicts and state affairs had been. She levitated a delicate lace handkerchief up to her face and surreptitiously dabbed at the moisture in her eyes. She was still serving her ponies, and they still loved her. It was all the purpose that she needed.

Author's Note:

And that's a wrap, people.

Thank you all so much for sticking with me to the end of the book! I've massively enjoyed reading all the comments as we went along, and hearing all your views. I hope you enjoyed getting to know my versions of all these characters.

If you liked the book, you can get a print copy of it here if you want, with the pretty cover art I made for it: https://www.lulu.com/account/projects/n6mnnm
It would be cool to think there are a few copies of my story sitting on shelves out there.

Comments

[Immortalmagi]

Wow, the end of the story! That was a really emotional ending with Luster Dawn and Little Cheese getting married! Everyone seems to have found someone that they're happy with now. I would have loved to have seen more of Cosy Glow and Flurry Heart, but it's nice knowing that they were getting on well together.

I've really enjoyed reading this, and I know you could have kept it going by adding more characters to be match-maked, but this was a really nice ending.

[TehEpicDuckeh]

This was Great. Absolutely gosh-dang Wonderful. I'm glad you wrote it, and wish the best of all things upon your futures :)

[Pause]

Liked the story though I will admit I was kind of disappointed with the Zap Apple path.

That kind of felt like a perfect opportunity for the lesson that a romantic relationship isnt necessary for a happy life. Especially with both Zap and Luster both being pressured by their families into this service.

[MoonlightRift]

A little disappointed, really wanted to see more of Flurry and Cozy, but it's fine. It was a good story. It earned it's place on my favorites.

[Boltstrike58]

I guess it's pretty good. I wish we'd gotten better resolutions to the Zap Apple and Cozy Glow paths, and I wish you'd shown more of Little Cheese and Lustre getting together.

[nightmaster0]

Great story enjoyed from start to finish. Hmm guess the only thing I wish for was seeing the reactions/thoughts of Flurry Hearts family to her new partner.

[Zaveryn]

I really enjoyed this story. You're a great writer, and I love the different new characters you've created and how you expanded on Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow. The only thing is I do feel like it ended a bit too quickly. I would've liked to have a bit more on Zap's end, and Little Cheese and Luster Dawn seem to have moved faster than I would have thought. I also would've liked to see more of Flurry. But still, great story and I really enjoyed reading it.

[StubobNumbers]

While I have a few minor nitpicks, this is a good story and you get a thumbs up from me.

[asdtroi8895]

Pretty good story overall. The romances were enjoyable and it was nice to see Celestia also learning as she went along. My favourite was Cozy's part of the story and I wish there was more of her and Flurry.

[TheYear2525]

I was at first sceptical if the universe would be interesting to me. I'm also not into the Lustre Dawn epoch and the older version of the Mane 6 etc. weirded me a out a bit (plus Celestia being at least 300 000 years old but not living up to that kind of age). Still the story was enticing after all, or more like how well the actual chapters were written. Also there were some harsh things strewn in that you face when dating. That spiced up things a bit. Flurry Heart's character was a wild card and I kinda wished there were more FlurryGlow shenanigans. Or CozyHeart? Sorry, I always need to spell these out xD .

[Shaslan]

10715176
Thanks for reading it all the way through! I love getting comments on this story, it's still my favourite one I've written.

I'm planning on writing a bigger FlurryGlow story later this year, as I really loved their dynamic too!

[TheYear2525]

10715179
Ya, I liked it a lot after all. Sometimes you need to be open to new stuff I guess. Like when you watch a series and the first episode doesn't convince you, it starts do drag you in at the third or so. For me at least that's often what happens xD .

Awesome news about the FlurryGlow Story :) .

[Midnight Prophecy]

10715179
If you do actually end up writing a FlurryGlow Story, could you please make an update to this story that direct to it? The lack of knowing how that story ends up is the only thing I still NEED to know from this story.
If there is a story saying how things turn out with Zap Apple and Dust Devil, I would love to read that too.

For me this story has been really good and it goes to show even Celestia is not perfect, while also revealing that she isn't nearly as helpless as she tended to appear in the show.

[Shaslan]

10770161
For sure, I'll definitely let you know. Glad you enjoyed this story! I enjoy showing Celestia as a more nuanced character, with less of the helplessness of show Celestia.

[Flash Magnus]

Please sequel

[Biglulu]

10770682
FlurryGlow is one of my favorite ships. I was hoping to see more of that in this story, but this was still great as it was.

[LightningChaser04]

10832340

[Shaslan]

10832092
Mac and AJ share the same parents, so it makes sense Zaps could be more like Pear Butter than Bright Mac :)
10832053
One of the writers said male, another said female, and the show itself never said, so in the end I just went with the fact she has eyelashes and none of the other foals ever do. Everyone's headcanon is different though!

[Undome Tinwe]

This was delightful! I was entranced by all the different threads of the story all the way to the end, and I can't wait to read the sequel to see more of Cozy and Flurry.

[Bigwig6666]

I really enjoyed reading this one--it's been a while since I haven't wanted to put my phone down to stop reading

Lovely little story

[Starlight Nova]

Is this also a comedy?

[Shaslan]

11273004
Yeah I was going for romcom sort of vibes sprinkled with the odd deeper character moment. Hope you found it entertaining!

[Princess Calamari]

I started reading this story last night, and finished reading it in the same night! Every single time I would tell myself, "One more chapter and then you have to go study!" But I ended up finishing this story instead of studying It was so riveting!

I absolutely adore this delightful story. It is one of the best stories on this site, in my opinion. The characters and their interactions are written so well. In particular, I like the way you wrote Celestia and Flurry. Celestia becomes more motherly and less helpless than she was in the show, but still able to break down sometimes. And Flurry's such a slay baddie! I love how she and Cozy interact. (It's my OTP, and I'm glad you also ship it because you're a really great writer. )

Your writing style is so appealing. Usually, I don't really care about OCs, but here, I was rooting for Zaps and Dust Devil/Leaftail the whole time! The character designs are really good. They should be canon.

I really do love everything about this story. The end was cheerful and satisfying, too. I feel like words can't really express how much I like this story...You're an amazing writer!

Thanks for writing this story! I can't wait to read the sequel!

P.S. I can't believe how you made me ship AppleDash when I was reading this story...I'm a huge FlutterDash shipper (I'm SO SORRY Shaslan!!) but now I ship AppleDash as well!

[Shaslan]

11722929
What a lovely comment to log on to, thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked it.

[nautica]

11793554 your welcome^^

[Shaslan]

11851925
Bingo. I like flawed celestia while she and everypony else are still convinced she's perfect.