Stars above, Celestia really did hate parties like this... All of these ponies from various towns and cities, brought together due to their stature. She'd hoped, and really prayed, that Cadance would get out of her shell, but...

Frankly, this was ridiculous. They were visiting Ponyville now to find her a suitor... Things were supposed to be far ahead by now. This wasn't to plan.

A slight headache came to her, which she nursed all the happily with a delicious drink. Destiny was rarely an easy thing. Frankly, she didn't know what went wrong in the first place. But she just... didn't seem to get along with anypony else.

Okay, maybe that wasn't being fair. Cadance got along with most ponies, period. But she didn't like anypony... Not after last time.

"Princess?" Twilight's voice perked up next to her, nearly causing her to choke.

"Y-yes?" She daintily patted a napkin to her lips, in order to hide her own mess.

"Why did... Luna not come?" The innocent question came, only for her to wince in response.

'With due respect, Celestia, if we must show up to another one of these 'parties' where your replacement for me fails to get bedded, we'll jump from the highest tow-'

"She-ah... She didn't want to." And technically, she wasn't lying.

"O-oh..." Her most faithful student's head dropped. "I haven't seen her since... well, the elements. I was worried she wasn't getting treated well."

She couldn't help but find a smile find it's way to her face. Despite everything, that empathy was why she knew Twilight was her choice. And why she was happy to let Cadance set her on that path, as well...

"She's recovering. But the process is a long one; most of the magic was purged from her body." She reached a hoof out to Twilight's chin, gently raising it to match her gaze. "She's decided to present her best to the kingdom, as you of all ponies should understand how she's perceived by ponies who don't understand who she is after her absence."

The mental image of Luna's mane wildly fritzing with partially-ethereal hair energizing her normal hair into a permanent state of bed-hair almost made her crack a grin. It wasn't helped by the mental image of her showing up to court like that...

"I-I think I can understand that..." Twilight mumbled in response, still moping a bit. "But Cadance ran off too, so I just feel a bit... out of place. Rainbow is talking to the weather team, Applejack to the Riches, Pinkie is being Pinkie, Fluttershy is hiding, and Rarity is..." She paused, sighing. "Being Rarity."

"And why would that be? You're an element, aren't you?" Celestia chuckled. "You'd be surprised how many ponies here would love a conversation with you. It wouldn't hurt to try."

On the topic of Cadance, though... Her eyes briefly flicked from corner to corner of the room. 'She didn't run again, did she?' She felt about ready to pout as she couldn't quite spot her-

Wait, was she... Talking to that creature Twilight had shown her? The one said to be from another world? Her curiosity was peaked.

"Princess?" Twilight asked from her side again, gently removing her head from her mentor's hoof. "What're you looking at?"

"Them," She deftly pointed a hoof. "I have never seen Cadance touch an ounce of salt, much less look so animated."

... Maybe she'd been wrong to have tried to push her towards the more advantageous choices for a pairing, but... Honestly, at this point she'd take anything!

Maybe that also sounded a bit wrong, but Cadance was picky if anything! She sighed, she understood how easy it was to be dissuaded, but she didn't even seem to try anymore...

"Oh." Twilight's muzzle scrunched up a bit. "David's a bit... of a character."

"A... character?" She asked.

"Yeah. He's always a bit... Weird." Her student's expression was a bit uncomfortable.

"Weird, how?" She pressed.

"Weird like- a weird look in his eyes. I don't know, I can't explain it. He's just... he doesn't get along with most ponies well, and he doesn't always seem there. But then he won't talk about it, and..."

"Hmm..." Her gaze lingered on them for a moment, as Cadance gestured wildly and connected invisible dots in the air, for the clearly-not-sober alien to lean into a hand with a goofy little grin. "I can work with this, it could help them both. Even if the nobles might be upset."

"What?" Twilight's gaze snapped back to her again, perturbed.

"Nothing."

... Now how did she have to tease Cadance before she'd run off to find this 'David' again...

Clearly, he looked like he wasn't going to remember a moment from tonight, judging by how often he nearly fell over while leaned into that hand. So she'd have to resort to drastic measures...

And if she knew anything about her adoptive Niece, it's that she could talk about her passion for hours... And that wasn't a bad thing! She liked talking about the intricacies of moving the sun relating to the shift in seasons and other requirements to keep nature steady as well!

A wicked little grin came to her. Oh, she knew how she was going to do this... She just needed an address, some honeyed words to her Niece about how she felt about her passion, ask her about the party... Another reminder about how she had yet to find her match...

"P-princess? Why are y-"

She cleared her throat, wings flaring up behind her as she walked off towards the bar, finding her drink very empty by now. "Come, my faithful student. Let's discuss some of the lessons you've learnt since we were last together, if you have no intentions to go out and mingle tonight..."

"I-uh-O-Okay!" She followed along with an energised trot.

'I feel I will owe you both an apology later, but I assure you, this will be for the best.'

Now she only hoped Cadance wouldn't completely drop the ball, like she did with Twilight's brother...

Author's Note

I couldn't help myself...
I always picture Celestia more as an opportunist than some grand planner- it would go a way to explain things!

Thanks for reading, there's probably so many mistakes, clunky writing, and struggling from starting to use third-person properly- but HEY, I had fun!
Plus at some point I was like 'ah fuck I'm going too long' lmao. Morphed from a stupid one-shot, to a 10k of me just going 'and then-' So I had to eventually grab my hand and go 'just post it.'
Please point out any and all grammar and spelling mistakes so I can fix them and act like they never happened. Definitely didn't feel as refined as usual, but that's just a biproduct of me getting out of my comfort zone, and starting to get myself writing again... in more ways than one.