“You called, Cadance?”
“Oh, Anon! Just the man I wanted to see! Come in, come in!”
Anon smiles as he steps into the small, dimly lit room. The walls of the castle towering over the middle of the Crystal Empire are, fittingly, made of crystal. As a result, even though the study is lit only by a fireplace and a few scattered candles, said light bounces off of the walls and bathes the room in all manner of beautiful, dancing colors.
The room itself is quite cozy. It’s mostly circular, with several bookshelves built into the crystalline walls. A big, fuzzy rug covers most of the floor, and on the opposite side of the room from the entrance, a grand fireplace crackles with a gentle fire. Said fire provides a comfortable warmth to the room, which is a useful feature to have during one of the colder months of the year in one of the coldest places in Equestria.
Near the fireplace, a small, wooden coffee table sits not far off of the ground. On the side closest to the entrance, two large, comfortable-looking, well-cushioned chairs face the fire, with Princess Cadance sitting in one with an excited grin on her face.
“I’m surprised you’re here of all places. Isn’t Hearts and Hooves Day tomorrow?”
“It is!”
“Then doesn’t the ‘Princess of Love’ have things to be taking care of?”
Anon raises an eyebrow, but the smile doesn’t leave his face as he takes a seat in the vacant chair.
“Tsk. That title doesn’t mean anything and you know it, Nonny.” Cadance leans back in her own chair as her horn begins to glow, at which point Anon notices a small tea set resting on the coffee table. Two cups lift from the small tray, with Cadance using her magic to take a sip from one and levitating the other towards her human friend, who gently grabs the cup and takes a sip as well. “Sure, I can do love magic better than most, but it’s not like I use it all that often.”
Anon doesn’t reply for a moment, instead savoring the delicious taste of tea brewed by the Crystal Castle staff. That’s not a luxury many get to enjoy.
“Alright, then what are you doing?”
A sly grin spreads across her face as her horn glows yet again. Anon hears the clicking of the door behind them being locked, and he glances around the room as the walls briefly give off a dim blue glow.
“What we discuss here tonight is not to leave this room. I have soundproofed it, and I have made sure that nopony will bother us.”
“Uhh… okay?” Anon scratches the back of his head, looking much more confused than concerned. “You sure you want to entrust a secret like that to me? I’m not exactly popular around these parts.”
“Hmhm. You say that like you don’t know more of my secrets than Celestia.” Anon lets out a single chuckle. She’s totally right. Ever since he woke up in Canterlot as a scared, confused child all those years ago and attracted the attention of the not-yet-a-princess Cadance, the two of them have been joined at the hip. She even took him on as an advisor after becoming the ruler of the Crystal Empire. “Besides, I’m not just sharing for the sake of sharing. It’s got to do with you, too.”
“Oh? Well, consider me interested. What does the glorious Princess Cadance want with little ol’ Anon?”
“I,” she excitedly starts as she levitates some paper and a quill towards Anon, “want you to take part in my secret hobby.”
“Oh?” Anon sets his tea down as he grabs the paper and quill, immediately noticing that the paper is blank. “I take it you’re not about to ask me to draw a picture.”
“Hmhm, no. You see, even though I don’t have any actual duties for Hearts and Hooves Day, I do still love the holiday.”
“Princess of Love and all that.”
She sighs while feigning annoyance, unable to hide her amused smile.
“Sure. Anyway, I like to play a little game the night before.” Her horn lights up once again, but it’s much brighter this time around. Anon looks down to see a number of translucent figures made of magic on the coffee table, each one a pony that’s standing perfectly still. He leans forward, narrowing his eyes as he recognizes one of them. “Is that… Glamour Gleam?”
“It is!” Cadance claps her hooves together excitedly, and Anon decides to not mention how cute she is when she does. “We’re going to take part in the age-old ritual of shipping.”
“...Shipping?”
“Yes!”
“Like… pretending two fictional characters are romantically involved with each other?”
“Exactly! But instead of fictional characters, we’re shipping my subjects!”
Anon blinks.
“Cadance?”
“Hm?”
“Do you want my honest opinion?”
“Oh, Nonny, you know I always value your thoughts.”
“Okay, well, this sounds like the weirdest and creepiest thing you’ve ever done.”
“Come onnnnnnnn~!”
Cadance leans forward, using her magic to scoot her chair closer to Anon’s. Much closer. So much so that she doesn’t stop until the chairs are touching and her face is mere inches from his own. She looks at him with big puppy-dog eyes that are wholly unbecoming of a princess.
But they both know they’re Anon’s biggest weakness.
He returns her stare for a moment before finally breaking eye contact. Whether his cheeks are going red because of her or because of his proximity to the fireplace is up in the air. At least, that’s what he hopes.
With a huff, he resituates himself in his chair.
“Ugh. Fine.”
“Yay!”
Cadance leans back into her own seat and begins writing, occasionally looking up from her paper to glance at the figures on the table and adjusting them into pairs.
“...Wh-what exactly am I supposed to be doing?”
“Shipping! I thought that was obvious.” Anon narrows his eyes as if to say “really?” “...Look, all you have to do is write two names next to each other. Put an ‘x’ or a slash between them or something. That means you think those two will get together tomorrow!”
“W-wait, ‘think?’ Not ‘want?’”
“Oh, Nonny. We can’t control ponies’ love lives, but we can guess who’s gonna get asked out by who tomorrow!”
“Oooooooohhhhhhh. That makes a lot more sense.”
“What did you think I meant?”
“Voyeu–”
“Nonny!” Cadance playfully hits him in the shoulder, causing him to realize that she’s not wearing her typical regalia. He also briefly eyes her figure, making a mental note of how beautiful his best friend has become. “Look, are you gonna play or not?”
“...Hehe. Sure. Give me a few minutes.”
“Good! Heck, we can even make this a competition!”
“How so?”
“One point for each couple you get right tomorrow. The winner takes the loser out for dinner!”
“I thought we were already going out for dinner? You know, our annual ‘single together’ dinner?”
“Sure, but now I can make you take me somewhere expensive!”
“With the paycheck you give me?”
“Are you in or not?”
Anon looks her up and down. She wears a cocky smile, which makes him want to prove her wrong oh so badly.
She has him wrapped around her hoof.
“Alright, fine. But don’t be mad when I win.”
“We’ll see~!”
“Alright, done.”
After about fifteen minutes of intense thinking and relative silence, both parties have completely filled up their list of ships. Cadance’s horn glows again, and with a flash, the figures on the table disappear. Anon takes the opportunity to refill his cup.
“So, wanna compare notes?”
“I guess it’d be hard to verify that neither of us are cheating otherwise, right?”
Cadance stands from her seat and smiles at Anon. He sighs before moving over in his chair, giving her enough room to gleefully hop into the space next to him. It’s a tight fit, as the chair isn’t that big, but neither are bothered by it.
Anon can feel his cheeks reddening again, though.
“Let’s see… yeah, I shipped them too. I had that pair, too. Bright Smile with… yeah, that was my pick.” Cadance narrows her eyes. “Wait a minute.”
“Something wrong?”
“Nonny, we have the same lists.”
“We do?” Anon narrows his eyes as well before grabbing the papers. “Give me those.”
His eyes dart across the two lists. The names aren’t in the same order, but the pairings sure do seem to be identical across the board.
“What are the odds of that?!”
“G-great minds think alike, right?”
Anon’s eyes briefly stop. He knows he just heard her stutter. That's… very unlike her. Deciding not to bring it up, he continues reading. Those are the same, those are the same… heck, they even both predicted that Glint would stay single.
“Yeah, these sure do look the… same…” Anon trails off as his eyes find their way to the bottom of both lists. While they seemed identical at first, that isn’t exactly true, as Cadance’s appears to have one more pairing than his does. Right there at the very bottom of her page are two names that he didn’t write down whatsoever, as he didn’t think they were options in the game. “...”
Cadance clears her throat, but says nothing.
There, in small letters at the bottom of her page, are the names “Nonny/Cadance.”
“...N-nice one, Cadance.” Anon forces a smile as he rubs the back of his head. “You really got me!”
“G-got you?”
“You really threw me off of my game with that one! Getting a free point because you already knew we were going out to dinner, eh? That’s a pretty cheap trick!”
“...”
“...Cadance?”
She attempts to clear her throat once again, but struggles while doing so.
“I, uh… I don’t think just going to dinner counts as a ship.”
“So you think that… that the two of us are gonna…”
“...”
Cadance looks away, her face as red as can be. Small beads of sweat form on her brow. Anon can feel his own cheeks heating up again. He’s at a loss for words, but the sight of Cadance turning away from him with such an embarrassed, dejected look on her face makes his feet run cold.
“Cadance?”
“I…” She wants to say something. She’s desperate to say something. She’s never wanted to speak so badly in her entire life, but the words just won’t leave her mouth. “Um…”
For a while, neither of them say anything. Instead, they both focus on literally anything else in the room they can find as their faces only continue to become more flushed.
Finally, Anon breaks the silence.
“You know, I, uh…” His voice cracks numerous times, and to call it shaky would be an understatement. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”
“H-huh?”
“Like… when I was lost and confused, you actually listened to me. You cared about me. You wanted to be my friend.” He takes a deep breath in an effort to calm himself down before continuing. “You kept supporting me, even when everypony else thought I was gross. Then you became a princess, and you… you never abandoned me. You kept me right there by your side.” Finally, Anon turns to look at her, though she does not do the same. “Thank you.”
“I-it’s the least I could do, really,” she mumbles. “I got the better end of that deal, anyway. Nopony realizes how amazing you are. They don’t know how much they’re missing out on. I get you all to myself, now.”
“...And you want that to be permanent, right?” Those words finally prompt her to face him, her wide eyes locking onto his own. They both look as flushed and nervous as can be, but they’re also both trying to work through it regardless. It takes everything in Anon’s power to not get lost in those beautiful eyes of hers. “That’s, er… that’s what shipping is, right?”
“...Y-yeah.”
Slowly, and with the gentleness of a mother holding her newborn foal, Anon takes one of her hooves in both hands, never looking away from her eyes.
“Well… w-would you like to maybe… make your ship a reality?”
As he says those words, he feels a weight lift from his chest. It wasn’t until this very moment that he realized how long he’s been wanting to make his feelings known. And if the warm tears beginning to form in Cadance’s eyes are anything to go by, she feels similar.
“I’d like that very much, Nonny.”
Keeping one hand on her hoof, Anon wraps his other arm around her. She eagerly returns the favor, immediately embracing him as tightly as she can. She wraps her multi-hued wings around him, enveloping him in a warm blanket of love.
They remain like that for a few long, quiet moments before Anon speaks up again.
“You know what?”
“Hm?”
“Now that it’s out in the open, I feel kinda stupid for not saying something sooner.”
Cadance lets out a chuckle, but it’s more out of relief than anything.
“I won’t act like I haven’t been extremely nervous to make my feelings known either, but you did miss every single one of my signals.”
“Hey, you’re the Princess of Love, not me.”
“Oh, shut it.”
The pair shares a laugh before falling silent for a few more seconds.
“...I love you, Cadance. I’m sorry for not showing that sooner.”
“I love you too, Nonny. And trust me, I’m just as guilty.”
Both parties slowly begin to part, taking the opportunity to lock eyes yet again. It isn’t long before they’re leaning in close, closing their eyes as they allow their lips to meet and their passion to overflow.
The Princess of Love finally got what she wanted.
“I still won the game, by the way.”
“What?!”
“I got the ship right, didn’t I? And since our lists are otherwise the same~?”
“...Ugh.”
“Have fun paying, Nonny! Love you!”
Anon sighs.
He’d better get used to this.
Author's Note
Who could be better for Day #7 of Hearts and Hands Week than the Princess of Love? 
As always, I appreciate any and all feedback!
