Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-

David's hand smacked the table next to him, raising his head with a groggy groan. It felt like he'd barely-

... Oh. His alarm. Guess he never got a chance to turn it off... He took a look around the room, a mixture of disappointment and frustration on his face.

Still in pony-land... Another day out of place.

With another groan, he swept his legs over the side of his bed and rubbed his face. By his best guestimates, he'd only gotten a couple hours of sleep.

Bzzt!

He raised an eyebrow, reaching out to his phone and picking it up, flipping it in his hand a couple of times to inspect the old scratched-up thing, before finally opening it.

-"Celestia hath no mercy on anybody who sleeps in."

-"AnyPONY. Leave me alone, electric-metal demon, I just woke up."

A small smile found it's way onto his face again.

"Neither does the alarm I forgot about. Convenient timing."

He stood up, giving himself a hearty stretch, hoisting his phone in the air in the process.

Bzz-

Mid-stretch, the thing bzzz'd out of his hand, landing on his head with a hard thump. "Shit!"

No matter how much damn time passed, he couldn't stop himself from dropping the thing.

Rubbing his head with a small self-deprecating groan, he leaned down to pick up the thing again, slowly meandering his way to the bathroom.

-"Knowing my Aunty, that's no coincidence... Long day for us both, eh?"

"Long text chain, stay up too late, have to get up to do shit... nah, that's pretty par for the course honestly. I'd suggest you burn that thing before it ruins your life."

-"I mean, technically that'd only be a bad habit if I kept letting you keep me up."

He smirked a bit. He could identify that challenge from anywhere.

"So if I message you at 11pm asking if two ponies look cute together you won't fish the thing out from under your pillow and decide to sleep never?"

-"No promises~"

"She's already using tildes, we're all doomed."

He saw her reply come in the form of a laughing face tagged below his message, and he smiled a little more. How familiar was she getting with that thing? He suspected he was about to ruin the attention span of an entire species, if she managed to replicate any more of these things...

With a small mumble, he casually set it to sleep and reached for his toothbrush. If he remembered correctly, Pinkie was going to drag him somewhere today, if he was up. He'd nearly forgotten, and honestly dreaded it, but...

Well, she wouldn't let him stay cooped up inside, no matter how hard he tried. Now he just hoped he could keep his head down... Better not to see her again.

"This object is quite amazing, seeing what it can do..." Celestia mumbled, all but stealing the small box out of Cadance's hooves with a small whisp of magic- for the mare to try and fish it back with a 'hey!' though with little success... "It explains your fixation with it, since I woke you up."

"I-It's primary function seems to be to-" She swatted a hoof at it, for Celestia to pull it away with a small tug of magic. "-Send and receive messages, at least so far!"

"I can see that..." She hummed, pressing the tiniest bit of energy against it's surface along with a precise telekinetic push, seeming to be able to make the strings of messages go forever as she dragged it downwards...

"How did you...?" The smaller princess's eyes widened as she saw her mentor so effortlessly move through it. She didn't even use her nose!

"Well, I took a look at those notes you brought up here from Twilight, after you were done with them... this 'touchscreen' seems to look for a push and a charge, so if you just do the tiniest bit..." She flicked the magic against it a little faster, letting out a little giggle when the messages truly flew by like a set of slots. "My, my, there are a lot of these little letters between you two..."

The guilty party felt her face get a lot more warm at that. "W-well he asked me about what I did, so... Y'know! I needed to go into detail!"

"And all the letters and images before he started replying?" Celestia threw her a sly grin. "What was that for?"

"I-well-" She puffed up her cheeks, looking away and swatting her tail at the larger mare's legs, to her giggle. "He also asked about what I did then! But he... forgot. So I had to catch him up again later!"

She leaned her nose in close to the screen, as she scrolled it down again... "... And all the flirting?"

"Th-that- that isn't flirting!"

For once, Celestia was surprised- she didn't follow it up, she just... denied it. It was rare she was that flustered... And here she thought she was being a bit cruel, being on her flanks the way she had been since the little party.

But yet again- seeing Cadance throw herself at the task of replicating this little object of her's, it seemed to have worked out well... for a start, at least. And after she had seemed so down in the dumps, it was honestly refreshing to see her like that. She honestly feared what Twilight and Cadance could do if they worked together on something like this, with how their minds could both sharpen intensely if they felt impassioned.

"Mmm... I assume this was the same colt you were gesturing to wildly at the visitation in Ponyville, then?" She, however, could not help herself.

The smaller alicorn nearly tripped over herself, to the proper laughter of Celestia. "I thought- everypony seemed distracted!"

"Oh, he certainly seemed distracted by the amount of drinks he had. To think, my niece would stoop to such a level... No wonder he forgot, I can only imagine what you did, considering I didn't see you that night..."

To say her face was red would be an understatement. "Hey! I didn't- I just flew back late and passed out I didn't-"

"You brought a colt into the castle without even asking? Tch, tch..."

At this point, again, she was beyond mortified. "A-Aunty! I didn't do anything! I wouldn't do anything, and you know it!"

"I know," She disarmed her with a small pat to the head, which only elicited an annoyed snort from her. "But, it would be better than you... causing trouble again."

And there was that look of shame...

"Again, you don't need to be dissuaded so easily..." She gently stopped her with a large white wing, only to lean down and nuzzle her gently. "Not everything happens perfectly. Every bad experience is one to learn from."

"I just don't like the idea that being myself is..." Cadance trailed off, pulling gently away from her, to continue down the halls. "S-so, what did you have in mind for breakfast?"

She pursed her lips slightly, feeling a small pit form in her stomach. 'It's been nearly a year, and she still...'

She sighed quietly, taking a gentle step forwards. She could push, but she couldn't rush things.

Cadance would be ready when she was ready. Not when Celestia decided she was...

Author's Note

I wrote this and kinda-edited it in 30-40 minutes, at 5am!

The fact the story did so well is astounding lmao, been on featured for a few days now...

Thought I'd offer this, not so much as a promise to the story continuing or anything, buuuuut...

Just the fact I appreciate the lot of you, and that I'm glad so many people have enjoyed my stupid stories over the years. So long as you put effort into something, it can be astounding how it turns out.
Every story of mine comes from the heart in some way; they're all a bit personal, or at least the comedy is straight up me just laughing to myself in text form, and presenting it to you.