As the train to the crystal empire came to a very hard break, twilight looked out the window. It was only a week to hearts and hooves day and she received a letter from Cadence that said to meet her a week before the holiday. It was strange for Cadence to send a certain date to meet Twilight, but she would never pass the time to see her sister-in-law and her B.B.B.F.F, even though they would be spending more time with each other.

She got off the train with her luggage and was hoping to see Cadence or Shining Armor, but was surprised to see one of Cadence’s royal guards. What she was to see was a Pegasus with the most soulful of eyes and a smile so wide, and yet so familiar, and his armor was glowing with his orange fur.

“Princess Twilight, I have been chosen to escort you to the crystal palace,” He said, Twilight couldn’t help but stare at his figure, his voice sounded like a cheer but in the strongest way.

“… Princess?” He said confusingly.

Blushing, Twilight says “Oh! Yes, I’m fine, thank you for escorting me.”

“No problem, I… I mean Princess Cadence is excited about your stay.”

The palace was filled with many celebrating festivities, many streamers were hung up and crystal balloons were high above the top of the palace.

“What is the big occasion? I didn’t think the crystal empire celebrated anything except the crystal fair or the friendship games, is it your own creation of hearts and hooves day because it just looks like a regular party, unless this is one of those royal celebrations in which only ponies from the palace can celebrate which I guess is fine but…” Twilight suddenly realized that she had been rambling on so much that the royal guard kept staring at her.

“Sorry, I usually ramble on when I am interested in something,” Twilight said.

“it’s okay, I actually like that you ramble, I’m not much of a talker, I usually stammer when I get nervous around… certain mares. Anyway, this is the start of a celebration to honor Mi Amore day.” The guard said.

Twilight Sparkle noticed he was blushing hard, she didn’t get a chance to ask about his name when Cadence came rushing to twilight as they did their special dance.

“I am so glad you could come, Twilight!” Cadence said, giving Twilight a hug, “Come on, let's go unpack your things.”

As they walked through the hall, twilight couldn’t stop staring at the guard in front of her. “He seems familiar, doesn’t he?” Cadence said, smirking at Twilight.

“Him? Oh, yeah I guess he does now that you mention it,” she said looking closely at him.

“Does he remind you of someone you saw, maybe in another world? Possible name Flash Sentry?”

Then it hit her like a ton of bricks when she said that name! Was it really him! Had it been that long since she had seen that similar face when she came out of that mirror. Suddenly Twilight couldn’t help but smile and blush so much she was as red as rarity’s satin dress on special occasions. Noticing that Cadence was watching, she stopped smiling and finally spoke, “I can’t believe that he still looks how I remember he was,”

Cadence, nodding, said, “And ever since you two bumped into each other, he always had a special look every time I mentioned your name.”

Twilight was astonished, she couldn’t let this down, now this vacation is going to be more interesting.

It was only a few more days until hearts and hooves day, or as the crystal empire celebrates, Mi Amore day, it was a big celebration that led everypony to do something for themselves and their special pony. There was even a ball at the end of the day.

Ever since Twilight realized that Cadence’s royal guard was Flash Sentry, she couldn’t speak or even see clearly. It was like all the blood that she had before had gone to her head to make her completely red in the face. Cadence and shining armor spent almost the entire trip with each other, but Twilight expected that with this celebration being of love. At times it seemed that Cadence was trying to set them up with each other, them sitting together at every meal was a very strange thing that she could only guess was Cadence’s doing, but what really got her was when she mentioned the ball to Twilight and Flash, she does like him, but the ball is a big step, she doesn’t even know how to talk to him yet, but it would be nice to dance the night away with him. Maybe even have something more.

“F-Flash? I-I was wondering if maybe after today we could, you know, go to the ball and possibly dance and have fun and…no that won’t work.” Twilight said in front of the Castles bathroom mirror, she thought it would be the best practice before she really asked Flash to the dance.

“It’s only a matter of time before the ball comes,” Cadence said coming into the bathroom.

“I really want to say what I want to without being a complete idiot.” Twilight said frustratingly, “I usually am so organized and neat, but this is just too much, I really like Flash, but if I can’t do so much as to ask him to go to a ball, then what will I do when I ask something else important. I am a princess, and that means I must be brave during conversations that I think is awkward, but I can’t do that. I can’t go to some pony and say how I feel, it is just so hard. I can’t think of what to say or how I will address the pony, I can’t write flashcards when I forget what they say, I thought something like this would be like a hard puzzle game but no, it is so much harder than I ever thought!” sobbing, twilight slid on the floor.

Cadence couldn’t bear to see Twilight like this, she came over to Twilight and hugged her ever so.

“Twilight, you do not know this, but I was going through the same thing whenever I fell in love with your brother, I didn’t know what to say or do, but I know one thing, we both liked each other and that was the only thing that mattered to me. Then when the time came, I told your brother how I felt and now we are living happily ever… present.”

Twilight felt a little better knowing that Cadence had the same problem. She calmed down as Cadence continued.
“Twilight, you have to know that Flash does like you the same so it is as awkward to him as to you, he probably is feeling the same way as you are”.

This made Twilight even better, in a weird way, and she did know that he liked her so maybe it would be easier to tell him if she kept that thought.

As Flash Century was walking down the hall, Twilight breathed in, it was only one day until Mi Amore day and Twilight was ready to ask. She entered the hall and began to get nervous.

“Hey Flash, how's the royal… guardying.” she spoke the best way she could.

‘What am I saying! He probably thinks I’m a huge idiot for saying such a spelling error’ Twilight thought.

“it’s going well, I have been doing my best,” he said nervously. It was true what Cadence had said, he was as nervous as she was, this gave her enough confidence to stand up and say what she wanted.

“Would you like to dance at the Mi Amore ball tomorrow,” Twilight was extremely nervous but what made her even more worried was the stillness that Flash was giving with his mouth open and eyes big.

‘Oh no, this was a mistake, he totally thinks I’m not good enough and thinks that I am too awkward and weird, or somepony already asked him and he doesn’t want to hurt my feelings, why isn’t he saying anything! Maybe I did another spelling error or I said it wrong, is there a specific way that I am supposed to say it, OH SWEET CELESTIA WHY ISN’T HE SPEAKING!’ Twilight thought.

In only a matter of seconds, she was almost to the point of hyperventilating. “Flash… it’s okay if you don’t want to go I just thought that it would be a nice break from your work but it’s fine,” Twilight said disappointed, she thought this would be the moment that she would be the happiest but instead, she was the saddest, after all this time she was so excited to go to this ball with him and now all she wants to do is go to her room and cry.

Before she left the hall she heard a small shout “Twilight,” Flash said, she quickly turned around and was hoping he was going to answer.

“I think it would be fun to go with you to this ball,” he said. Twilight smiled so very brightly, she ran over to hug him while saying “oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I think we’ll have the best time and…” Realizing what she was doing, Twilight leaned off and blushed, “I, uh, I mean, thank you, it’s going to be really fun,” she said laughing very nervously, she walked off to the end of the hall pumping her hoof while quietly shouting “yes” and into her bed to think of the best moment she had. While Flash went into the hall, on the other hand, turning his head blushing and saying “it really will”

The night of the ball was the biggest event since the friendship games. Everyone was in their finest outerwear and dancing this way and that.

Twilight, with her hair curled up in a high bun and a bit in a curled bang, with a beautiful magenta dress and dark pink ribbon on the back and a golden crystal necklace and earrings, walked down the ballroom.

The music was very light and fun but Twilight knows that if there would be soft music only two ponies would kick this party up a notch and that would be pinkie or DJ pon-3, which is weird because she doesn’t even know DJ pon-3 that well, she must’ve been homesick.

She was going into the room searching for Flash, when she finally spotted him she saw he was wearing a nice suit with a nice Crystal flower, “You look really pretty” Flash said, not being able to take his eyes off her.

“Thank you, so do you… I mean not that you look pretty, I meant that you look as nice as I was, not that I think that I am prettier than other ponies I just meant…” Flash put his hoof on her mouth to stop her from speaking, smiling he said: “thank you.”

They both stood there for a while listening to music. “So, do you want to do the thing we were going to do in the first place? Twilight said.

Flash Sentry looked confused at her witty comment, “Never mind, let’s dance,” She said.

They swayed to the music, it seemed like only a few minutes when an hour had gone by. Then, as if the night had changed a particular pony with similar sunglasses raised the music to a higher fun sounding song which led twilight to get extremely tired, they walked to the balcony and she and Flash stood off into Luna’s gorgeous night, they lay there looking up at the bright white moon. All along the night Twilight was in heaven but still, she had one question on her mind that she had to ask, she looked into his eyes. She noticed they were sparkling, she knew he must have felt as happy as she does. And she hated to ruin it.

“Flash, this night has been so wonderful, and you’ve made it even more special than it already was, but I still have one thing that I have to ask you. When I asked you to come to this ball, you just stood there and made me worried that you thought I was doing something wrong, what did I do, was there something I said wrong before you said yes or…” She was interrupted by a laughing Flash that made her feel like a little embarrassed,

“What’s so funny!? Was it something that I said at that time!” Feeling more annoyed than embarrassed, she looked at him now laughing harder than ever, after a while she couldn’t help but start herself. Soon they both were laughing in the cold of the night with all the stars glowing in each other's eyes.

“I’m sorry, it’s just when you said what I was doing, I couldn’t help but laugh about how silly I acted. It just blew my mind that some pony like you would ask some silly and non-special pony like me.” Flash said now looking kind of sad, Twilight looked at him with the most understandable of eyes and now understood everything

“Flash you have to know that you have more value than you think, you are a royal guard that protects the crystal empire, you look to yourself like the kind of pony who won’t go on to the world and will never go to be an important character, but what I see is a pony who tries his hardest to protect the ones he loves, even though he might fail at times he still does his best, and when things go wrong he is the first person to inform and do something about the problem, while he may not be the highest in the palace he is still important,” Twilight said leaning closer making them both blush intensively.

“At least to me,” as she leaned in closer they both shared their feelings in the form of a kiss. In the lone moon of Luna’s beauty, Twilight felt all the feelings in her spread out but still had one thing on her mind, while having the best time of her life she wondered if her friends were having as good as a Hearts and hooves day than her.

Author's Note

Yeah, this was back in 2017 when I shipped every character in MLP, but I still like this story, so if you don't like it then just skip to the next chapter