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Twilight had learned more and more with every one that was gifted to her.
She was up late again that night, once again studying magic and politics profusely and almost simultaneously, when there came a sudden knock that seemed to reverberate around the entire darkened castle. Nopony was at the door, but Twilight quickly saw the bouquet on the floor at her hooves. She picked it up, admiring how well-selected each and every rose was.
Pink roses, an entire bouquet with only the name of its night-themed sender written on a tag in elegant script.
Twilight smiled, touched at her friend’s display. It reminded her of when Rarity and Fluttershy had given her similar flowers while she had been seriously sick with the flu one time. She had been bedridden for days, and all of her best friends had wanted to cheer her up.
The next night went in a similar fashion, but the flowers slightly different. Already knowing who it was that was knocking, Twilight had rushed to the door to greet her before she escaped into the shadows, but was disappointed to find that she was too late. Once again, nopony was there. The bouquet, however, was still lovely.
This time, though, the roses were yellow. As yellow as the sun that was Celestia’s cutie-mark.
Twilight blushed, her eyes wide as she remembered when Shining Armor had given a similar bouquet to Cadence- to ask her foal-sitter the question that would get the ball rolling for them, years before a wedding was even considered.
That question was being asked again, this time to Twilight.
Unlike Cadence, though, Twilight was unsure about this sudden change.
Nothing happened for three days, but that didn’t mean Twilight had stopped thinking about where the two of them stood. In fact, once she started, she couldn’t even stop, not since she had received the second bouquet. Every space between two sentences, she saw her glowing smile. Every star in that darkened sky seemed to be her mane, and the sound of every breeze was either her gentle laugh or soft sighs.
She thought she didn’t have an answer, ignoring the almost-empty feeling that grew in her stomach every time she gazed upon her two bouquets, carefully and lovingly placed in water and sitting on her nightstand...
Three days later, another knock resulted in another rush to the door, only to find nothing more than another gift of pretty petals. For a reason still unknown to her at the time, Twilight felt more disappointed than she had the previous night, almost as if she had gone without something- or seeing somepony- for too long.
That couldn’t have been right though, could it? They had just seen each other the week before! And they would see each other again that week. It was strange to miss somepony you so often saw like that...unless...
She soon realized what it was, though, when she admired the bouquet’s roses on that particular night.
Red roses.
Her heart started beating faster in her chest. Though she was still unsure about the future, she could not deny her own feelings that were starting to come up in this matter. She wondered if it had been how Shining had felt, when he had done the same for Cadence just after that fateful night at the school dance.
A day passed in waiting.
Then two.
This time, though, Twilight knew that three was definitely the charm.
True to her thoughts, on the third night- eight days after that first welcomed gift- Twilight heard that final knock. It did not come from her bedroom door, but rather the windowed doors to her balcony.
She looked up at her calendar, at that little square for that day. It read, “Weekly Stargazing with Luna.”
She had smiled, turning towards the balcony.
As expected, Princess Luna herself stood there, her favorite telescope cradled in her forehooves- one that Twilight had given her for Hearth's Warming a year before. But Twilight paid the instrument no mind, instead focusing on the face of the lunar diarch. Blue fur was tinged red with a heavy blush, and as Twilight moved away from her desk, walking outside to sit patiently in front of her, those glowing teal eyes slowly moved to look up from the floor and at her.
Twilight tilted her head, a soft but questioning look in her eyes, asking Luna that one silent question of confirmation, Do you really mean it?
In response, Luna shifted her left wing, extending it forward and revealing the gift for that night.
The final bouquet had two kinds of flowers instead of one. Dark-blue, sparkling moonflowers mixed evenly among the bright lavender bellflowers in an artwork of pure nighttime beauty- beauty that had more meaning than any book she had ever read before in her entire life.
No amount of knowledge, though, Twilight knew, would make anything more beautiful to her than the other alicorn was at that moment.
The question had been asked, and the feelings shown, all of it without a single word. All that remained was the answer to the unspoken question. Twilight’s answer.
She came forward and accepted the bouquet, bringing her muzzle close to sniff the wonderfully-scented petals. Luna waited, as patient as ever, observing and hoping. Finally, the lavender alicorn set the arrangement aside gently, before coming forward to hug Luna tightly. Nuzzling the other alicorn’s cheek, Twilight slowly brought her mouth up to the ear of her fellow princess, whispering gently into it.
It was only one word.
“Yes.”
Then she moved her hoof, placing something behind her princess’s ear. Luna’s jaw dropped, when she carefully removed the object and saw a white jasmine floating in her magic. Her eyes teared up, but it was not from sadness.
Twilight held Luna for a moment longer before leaning back and cupping the alicorn’s chin with her hoof. Gently, ever-so-gently, she drew their lips together, and the two princesses shared their first kiss beneath Luna’s own moon and stars.
Twilight’s friends would talk later, saying how they thought it was romantic, but seem bit sudden. To say that Luna had confessed on that balcony, and that their love was first discovered that very night, would have been completely false, though. As they lay together a moment later to look up at that starry sky, one blue wing extended to protectively and lovingly cover her, Twilight snuggled up against her new marefriend and mused thoughtfully on the truth.
Friendship.
Affection.
Love.
All of it, leading up to that one final part.
Unity.