A Whole New World

by The 8-Bit Flame Princess

Splendid

There was silence.

Twilight was on her back, staring at the sky above her, feeling herself cooling down from her ecstatic high. The stars twinkled at her, and somehow they seemed brighter than before. Briefly, she wondered if it was to do with what they'd done together, and blushed.

Luna lay next to her, her eyes closed. Twilight couldn't tell if she was sleeping or not, and wondered if she would ever get a chance with Luna to discuss how they really felt. All they did was dance around the truth with each other - but now all that had to stop.

.

The sky had never seemed as dark as it did tonight, and Twilight remembered something Shining Armour had once said about his ex-marefriend when she was just a small filly

If you love somepony from far away, you'll only love the idea of them. Once you see them again, you can't love them properly because you've built up this perfect fantasy for yourself, and that's just not the truth. You have to love more than the version in your head, you have to love the real pony.

Twilight struggled with this for a while. Surely she just didn't love the idea of Luna? She knew Luna. They were friends before they were lovers, but now all that seemed to have come crashing down.

She loved the idea of who Luna could be. But she also loved the pony ... didn't she?

Twilight groaned softly. Her head was beginning to ache and all she wanted to do was sleep and forget this night had ever happened, take the easy way out. But when Luna shifted beside her, she knew that in life the easy thing may be what you want to to, but the hardest things in life are what you need to do.

"Luna?" she muttered softly. Luna opened her eyes and stared at Twilight. "We need to talk."

Luna sighed. "I don't want us to break up."

Twilight laughed quietly. "At the moment, I don't even know what I want. I thought I did, but ... Now everything seems to have changed," she said sadly.

"Are we a bad couple?" Luna asked, her head turned towards the sky, staring up at the stars she'd put there herself and waiting for Twilight's answer.

Twilight Sparkle paused for a minute, thinking it over in her head. "Theoretically, yes. I'm neurotic, self-entitled and selfish, and you are temperamental, demanding and possessive. We can never hold a steady conversation about what we want because we are too paranoid of the answer being anything remotely close to wrong, so we avoid all communication and procrastinate. I want you to be perfect and you want me to shower you in compliments, except you can never be my fantasy mare, and I can't lie to you.

"So, yes. Yes. We are a terrible couple."

"Splendid," Luna huffed. She knew that was going to be the answer, and yet somehow, deep down, she had been hoping she and Twilight could be the perfect couple.

But there was no such thing as perfect. Luna learned that the hard way.

"But that's not necessarily a bad thing," Twilight continued, and Luna looked at her, confused.

"I don't understand," she said.

"We love each other." Twilight smiled. Luna tried to return it, but failed. She sighed.

"That's not enough. It's a lovely sentiment, Twilight Sparkle, but it's never enough. Love can conquer evil, but there are just some things it cannot survive."

Twilight turned onto her side so she was facing Luna. "But we can make it survive, I know we can," she said with hope in her voice and eyes. Luna felt like she was driving a sledgehammer down on that hope, crushing it with reality and watching it die slowly in front of her, minute by minute.

"Terrible couples can work out," Twilight continued. "We just need to make it work."

"I don't want to break up with you," Luna said, resigning herself to the fate that was inevitably coming. Their whole relationship had been based around inevitability: the were destined to be together, to have something magical in their hooves - and it was inevitable that it would fall through like stardust, slipping away from them. They were destined to rise and converge and them disappear again, as ponies have done for centuries. They are just one in a million, one page in the age-old story of ponies who fall in love and then fall apart.

"I don't want to break up with you either," Twilight said, pressing her lips to Luna's with a fevered desperateness. Twilight didn't understand why this wasn't working. When things were broken, you used logic to fix them. She and Luna could fix this, she knew it. It was the absolute truth.

"Some things just aren't meant to be," Luna whispered as she pulled away. She wanted this, she wanted Twilight and her to have a carefree loving relationship, but at the same time she was too much of a realist to ever let that happen.

Twilight frowned at her. "You said we had a connection. How could you just throw this away?" she exclaimed.

"I'm not throwing it away! Don't ever tell me that I'm doing that, because that is something I would never do, ever, especially to somepony like you," Luna said, feeling anger quickly swell up in her. She too a deep breath and calmed down before continuing. "I'm not throwing it away. I don't want to do that. But you and I both know that it's time to shatter the illusion. This is not a healthy relationship for the both of us. We're not a good match, and as much as we want to be you just can't force things like that. Our paths are entwined, but we were never joined."

"We're toxic," Twilight muttered to herself. Luna nodded and sighed, burying her face into Twilight's mane, trying to consume her almost, not wanting to waste a minute.

"I just don't think we're working out," Luna stated simply, and then looked confused as Twilight started giggling. "This is no laughing matter, Twilight Sparkle."

"I'm sorry," Twilight said, trying to control her laughter, "it just sounds so cliché."

"It's very hard not to be. Most problems just repeat themselves over and over again and cannot be solved no matter how much you try."

"A bit like our relationship?" Twilight asked, and Luna only chuckled in response.

"So this is it," Twilight said. A thousand different things to say rushed through her mind, but none of them seemed appropriate. "I'm sorry," she finally decided on.

"Me too. But I guess the end finally has to come at some point," Luna replied.

"But maybe this isn't the end. Not completely. I mean, you never know," Twilight said.

Luna smiled at her. "Your endless optimism never fails to amuse me."

"I'm serious," Twilight exclaimed, clasping Luna's hooves in her own. "Like you said, we're entwined. We can't escape each other. Something like that doesn't end like this."

"So what are you suggesting?" Luna asked. Twilight's hope was infectious, it had attached itself to Luna now and she could feel it buzzing inside of her, like lemonade on a warm day. She allowed herself, just for a minute, to think that their might be a brighter future.

"Well, we're clearly not working out at the moment," Twilight said, and then she kissed Luna once more, quickly. "But I love you," she said as she pulled away, "and you love me. And maybe it's like you said, maybe it's not enough at the moment and maybe it never will be. But it could be. I hope it can be."

"So you want to put us on pause?" Luna asked skeptically. Twilight nodded, biting her lip, and Luna wondered whether she would ever stop loving her.

"I just think maybe it would be best for us if we spent some time apart from one another, and figure out what we want," Twilight began to ramble, but Luna stopped her with a kiss.

"I hope one day we can look back on this and remember, and maybe it will be a good memory," she said in a low voice, looking into Twilight's eyes with a sincere passion, and Twilight felt her breath catch in her throat. She was overcome with want for Luna, and suddenly she found tears in her eyes. She blinked them away and smiled at Luna.

"Pause," she said to Luna, and Luna smiled back at her.

"Pause," she replied.

Twilight thought about the pause, and somehow she knew (or maybe it was her eternal optimism) that someday they would unpause, someday their love for each other would shine once again, and they would be wonderful. It was true, it had to be true because she believed in it with all her heart.

Pause, Twilight thought to herself once more, and grinned.

They were entwined, and they would be joined, because that was how the story went.

---

THE END.

Author's Note:

AND AT LAST IT IS DONE

I am so sorry for the long wait between chapters but summer really took over my life and I just started school again a few days ago. But today I was struck by inspiration and finally cranked out over 1000 words to get this baby finished! But enough excuses.

Please upvote and favourite, and tell me what you thought of the end and how I can improve. Constructive criticism is very important to me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and I will hopefully write some more TwiLuna soon.

Comments

[ElkinFencer10]

....this made me sad....I mean, it's really good, but...it's not a cute, fluffy, happy ending. lol

[NikitaKitten]

I like the bit where they get back together. Genius!

I appreciate that you went for a story where they don't work out. That's a rare thing to see in fanfics, and you handled it very well.

[dlazerous]

This story was confusing. The emotional back and forth, it read more like two teenagers too filled with hormones and angst to know what they want rather than too mature people having a rational discussion and we all know that, Twilight at least, is as rational as they come.

I'm not saying this is a horrible story, it just feels to disjointed, like there was no clear focus as to what you wanted to tell people and it felt like a one shot that you attempted to stretch out when it should have remained a one shot.

I know that all twiLuna fics don't have to end up with them together and to be honest, it was a little refreshing to find one where they don't but they way you did it was well.... bad. They're together, they're not, then they're back, and then they're shouting again and somewhere in there I think they had sex but I'm not sure. It just seems like they are perpetually mad and stressed at each-other with how quickly they are to start yelling, and Luna shifts moods so fast, I'm be afraid she's going to strip her emotional gear box.

"Theoretically, yes. I'm neurotic, self-entitled and selfish, and you are temperamental, demanding and possessive.

and this made no sense what so ever. How is Twilight Self-entitled and selfish? Luna, I can see Tempermental but demanding and possessive, not really.

I can't say I enjoyed this but I felt it only fair as to say why. As such I will not be up-voting this, but because I did find the initial premise of the story original and promising, I won't be down-voting it either.

Please keep writing.

[Voidwalker]

This story could use some editing and at least in my opinion, it somehow deserves, even needs, a 'sad'-tag. I'm feeling more depressed then before reading it. I also agree with almost everything of that comment below. (5363882)

I'm sorry.