Stone and Secrets

"Alright Luna, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Luna had a strange look in her eyes. "Well sister, I've been wondering: what do you think about him?"

Celestia looked up and met her sister's eyes. Evidently, she was puzzled. "What do I think about who, Lulu?"

Luna smiled. "About the jester. The one who has been dropping by for ages always seeking your attention and your smile? He lives here now, does he not? What was his name... oh, Smiles something?"

Celestia felt a slight buildup of heat forming in her face. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her eyebrows furrowed.

"Why did you ask his name when you already know it?"

"Why did you ask who I'm talking about when you already know it?"

Celestia gave a defeated sigh.

"Fair enough. He's... well..." She found herself at a loss for words. "He's... infuriating and endearing all at once. I find him both magnificent and irritating in the extreme." She pondered for a moment. "Furthermore, when he's not welcoming himself into my presence, he's intruding into my thoughts. He's a very strange pony; I've never met any like him."

Luna looked up and away for a moment, as if planning her next move in a chess game. "And what of what happened earlier?"

"Well... it is a bit concerning, but... I have never seen him doing that before. I suppose it may not have been the best course of action, but I feel a sort of gratitude for it. It almost made me feel... safe, in a manner of speaking. I feel like he would always be there to help me, even if all my other subjects deserted me."

Luna nodded, and a broad smile spread itself across her lips as her voice took on a mischievous tone. She sounded like a filly who had been successful in a practical joke, savouring the moment when her victim realized what had transpired.  "Oh, Tia. You really are in love with him, aren't you? And here I thought I was making assumptions."

Celestia's flushed face and wide eyes complemented the shaky, uneasy tone in her voice. Luna was suddenly stricken with severe giggling. "I-I... you...  Of course not! He's infuriating! How could I..." As Celestia trailed off into an incoherent babbling, Luna burst out into open laughter.

Celestia's jabbering condensed into anger and shock.

"What is so funny?"

Luna simply shook her head, still giggling. "Tia, you've been smiling every time you talked about him. You're still doing it now."

The eternally alabaster cheeks of the great Princess Celestia suddenly took on a cherry red color, and the stupid grin she had disappeared instantly.

She attempted several times to start speaking, but each time only half a word managed to get through her uncooperative mouth.

Laughing once more, Luna shook her head, and gave her sister a pat on the shoulder. "Oh, Tia. When will you learn?"

Celestia's babbling turned into silence, but the redness and frustrated expression of her face remained.

Luna smiled once more, in a sincerely warm way. "Tia, I would consider it an injustice for a pony of any station, even a princess, to be ashamed of loving such a stallion."

Luna exited at a leisurely pace, permitting herself one more small bout of laughter before adding "I would say he has earned a fair chance, wouldn't you?"

And with that, she left a still-stunned Celestia to her thoughts.