Chapter 7
Luna and Twilight finished off the bag of pastries and settled down, Luna finding a lot of the recent history tomes Twilight had interesting. Twilight was back to her Glyphs and Runes and they silently read or worked for a while.
“So how do you like Ponyville?” Twilight asked a few hours after her return. Luna looked up at her, back down to the book and back up with a questioning expression. “I mean when you walked around.” Twilight clarified.
“Oh, I very much like the place. There’s certainly much less filth than I’m used to, in the streets and in people’s hearts.” Luna answered. Twilight smiled and got up from her study to sit next to Luna.
“Well, we try. Being in a small village like this founded off of the Apple Farm, there aren’t many here that can’t fend for themselves. The scum of the world that prey on the helpless find this place much harder to live in. And since it’s a small town and everybody knows everybody, nobody is all too keen on mucking up a friend’s property.” Twilight explained.
“Can you fend for yourself?” Luna asked. Twilight nudged her side and laughed.
“I’m no knight, but yes I can.” She said. Luna’s expression went good heartedly serious.
“Show me, then.” She said. Twilight gave her a determined look and stood up, beckoning for Luna to follow.
Luna had no idea the place had a basement, and that basement looked like it was renovated for the sole purpose of fighting. Training posts, dummies, weapons and the likes were everywhere.
“Shall we start with something simple or do you have more than basic knowledge?” Luna asked, very curious, as they retrieved some padding and wooden swords.
“The latter.” Twilight replied. They took their stances, Luna noted that Twilight’s was more than basic. It looked like a soldier’s stance. Luna prodded Twilight’s defenses with a quick succession of strikes and found her weapon ripped from her hands. She blinked and laughed. Twilight gave her a look that said ‘bring it on’ and Luna retrieved her weapon.
“So you’ve actually had training, let’s see how well.” Luna said and got a little more serious. Luna prodded Twilight’s defenses much more carefully this time and noticed that it was indeed a soldier’s stance, though only part of one.
“Your defense is superb, but how’s your offense?” Luna asked.
“My brother, who is a Knight and Captain in Canterlot, taught me to have my defense as my offense. Deflect, parry, wait for them to give you openings and strike.” Twilight explained. Luna smiled and took a defensive stance.
“But what if your opponent goes on the defensive? It would be a permanent stalemate. You need to create their own openings yourself too.” Luna said. Twilight looked a bit unsure of herself but she went on the offensive nonetheless. She kept her defensive stance, but she prodded Luna’s defenses similarly to how Luna tested her.
“Just poking at me isn’t going to open anything up.” Luna said, suddenly switching to the offense to strike at her. She intentionally gave Twilight openings to take advantage of, and the girl did not disappoint.
“The advantage of going on the offensive is you can give your opponent the openings that you want and take advantage of that.” Luna said when Twilight made to strike at her exposed shins and Luna expertly deflected it and twisted the blade from the girl’s hands with an elegant flourish of her own.
“You need to know your strengths and weaknesses better than your opponent, or else you become predictable and easy to defeat.” Luna continued as Twilight retrieved her blade.
“Then why not hand to hand? I’m better with smaller blades or my own hands.” Twilight suggested. Luna smiled and agreed and they took hand to hand stances. They were rather similar, actually.
“Don’t worry about hitting me, when your brother’s a soldier you learn to take hits.” Twilight said. Luna grinned and nodded, starting the spar. The two of them traded hits for a little while, testing each other’s speed and reaction time, before Twilight exploded into action. A series of strikes at a quick speed struck Luna in an attempt to overwhelm her, but Luna managed to block and counter them, landing a solid hit on the girl’s abdomen. It knocked the wind out of her and she caught her breath.
“You know that style better than I.” Twilight admitted and switched to a different stance. “But, being a scholar who’s interested in things like that, there’s a lot you can learn from scrolls and tomes.” She continued. Luna vaguely recognized the stance as a martial arts one and grinned.
“Where I lived before father died, There were not just celts and germanic people. I learned from many as well.” Luna said, adopting a stance Twilight didn’t recognize. It was her own creation, her own fighting style. They started their fight again, this time it was more fast paced and much more intricate.
Twilight tried to flip Luna over her head, but Luna stopped it halfway and nearly crashed down on Twilight’s head with her feet, twisting out of her grip. Twilight snaked around Luna and tried to sweep her feet out from under her, but Luna did an odd twist and caught the girl’s leg with her feet and nearly shattered the bone as she twisted around again and nearly threw the girl with just her feet.
Twilight was back up and more cautious in an instant and Luna went on the offensive. She quickly broke through the girl’s defenses with brute strength alone and overpowered her, deflecting the attempts to counter and twisting out of more than one grapple. In the end, Luna had Twilight in an inescapable hold that didn’t hurt the one being held.
“Well… I guess I need improvement.” Twilight said, panting heavily.
“I can help with that if you wish, but I have been raised to be a Knight since I could remember.” Luna replied, releasing the hold. They returned to the main floor, Twilight getting them large glasses of water, and they returned to sitting on the couch.
“I normally have a morning routine that I do for an hour or so when I’m not hungover.” Twilight said.
“I normally do something similar, though some days I dedicate to training myself and go for the entire day.” Luna said.
“And you were trained by one of the greatest knights in a century, for him to be Solaire’s top general.” Twilight said, lying her head on Luna’s shoulder.
“I guess.” Luna assented and they were silent for a while. Luna looked out of the window, at the sun, and saw that it was an hour or so past noon.
“So, I can’t imagine you’ll be staying here for much longer. There won’t be another tournament here for some time.” Twilight said a little sadly. Luna looked at her and smiled.
“I suppose that for a while I’ll follow where the closest Tournaments lead me, but I think for now I’ll still call this village home. Everyone else said that they might follow to continue their duties with me, what’s one more?” She asked, giving Twilight a knowing glance. Twilight smiled and snuggled into Luna.
“I do have my own duties here as well. Applejack has her family to run the Farm, Rarity and Belle can work wherever they are, Fluttershy the same and Dash has nothing really keeping her here. Spike would go with Rarity so I’d be alone to run the Library.” Twilight explained.
“Oh I’m sure someone could take it.” Luna said. Twilight hummed in agreement.
“Perhaps, but I’d need to know where we’re going so I can notify Celestia of where I am, my research I can conduct wherever.” Twilight said.
“Of course. But, enough of what’s to come. I’m content sharing the present with you right now.” Luns said, ending the conversation. Twilight giggled and pulled Luna into an embrace.
This feeling was very strange to Luna. She had read all about love and had it explained by many, but she just had no idea what to expect. On the outside, it might seem that Luna has adapted to everything. If one were to peek into her mind, though…
It was in these long silent moments where she could really delve into her thoughts. She was confused, happy, but above all else terrified. Terrified of what a relationship would be, terrified of losing whatever it was that she had, absolutely horrified. It hadn’t even been a week and she’d already made friends she felt were close and entered into a bit of a wobbly relationship.
Father always told her that if a man tried to kiss her when they first met then she was to beat him. Guess that doesn’t apply to a woman.
“What are you thinking?” Twilight suddenly asked. Luna tried to put it into words.
“This way of living, it’s completely new to me. I never had friends, let alone someone like you. I lived alone with an old knight who raised me as a knight, but I feel like a child in a pile of fine snow when I’m here.” Luna explained. Twilight laughed and stood up.
“Well hopefully it turns out for the better. I was like you, not too long ago. Until I was sent here I was the isolated princess’ student. It takes some getting used to, but other people can be a boon.” She said.
“I’ve begun to notice that.” Luna said, standing as well.
“Well I should probably get back to work. Let me know where you’re heading next and I’ll see what I can do.” Twilight said, walking back over to her study.
“Of course. I suppose I should go talk to the others about it as well, see if they really are willing to follow me.” Luna said. Twilight kissed her on the cheek and sat down. Luna smiled and turned to leave. She stopped, though, looking back at Twilight.
Jarring and alien as it is, Luna was beginning to enjoy this new lifestyle.
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Love it!
3636636 glad you did
not saying that your writing skills were ever bad or anything but I'm pretty sure you're stories are getting even better. I say this because the Renaissance-era country stuff is SO easily screwed up and you have taken this and made actually work
and by the way, LOVE the pic! Luna one of best ponies
3660384 I did a bit of research into this one, along with a knight's tale being my favorite movie so I know a bit about the era. Some things I just threw in there cuz why not but hey, it's a story I can do that.
and of course I'm getting better. you should see the first story I've ever written, actually no you shouldn't... the internet is the best teacher
3661341 well I can always get you a link to the website that has my first attempt at writing (it had been years) of course it has been gone over more than a few times but my punctuation and grammar are still evident of my abilities
3661575 one of the main reasons why I don't usually touch things I've written previously, other than rewrites, is so that I can look at my improvements. take one of my finished stories, like the sun and her little sparkle or crimson night or what say you, and then compare it to some of my first entries on this site even- and I had been writing for quite a few months before then. a lot can change in a year and a half, from single blocks of horribly paced naruto fanfiction to featured stories.
long story short persevere and listen to the good criticism