“You read it...” Twilight repeated, still blushing. Luna looked guiltily at the other mare.
“I’m so sorry... I couldn’t help myself, and I know that doesn’t mean what I’ve done was right but...” Luna stopped, unable to think of anything to say.
They stood staring at each other in silence until Twilight spoke once more, “How much did you see?” Twilight asked eventually. Luna was slightly relieved at this, she hadn’t seen all that much, only the last page. For a moment her curiosity piqued, she wondered what else there was in the diary before she cut off those thoughts, her curiosity was the reason she was in the situation she was in.
“Not much, only the latest entry.” Luna replied, unfortunately it just made Twilight blush even more for some reason.
“The latest entry?” Twilight asked for confirmation, Luna nodded once more and Twilight’s blush deepened, Luna’s curiosity was now bursting to know what else there was inside, and why reading only the last entry was worse. Perhaps she wouldn’t get the full meaning if she only read the latest entry?
“Since you’ve already read it, I might as well come out with it.” Twilight said, “That last entry is the only one where I talked about my... feelings for you, all of the other entries had to do with other things, like what I felt when I saw Applejack stop a stampede, for example.”
“Oh...” Luna replied. The silence once more began to build up, neither moving at all apart from the occasional blink.
“Are you angry Twilight? I would completely understand if you were, what I did was not good by any means.” Luna asked after the awkward silence got too much for her, Twilight shook her head.
“No, I’m not mad, I would have been curious too. I’m just unsure of what to do now... I didn’t expect for you to find out this way.” Twilight replied, lowering her head. Luna nodded.
“Well how about I answer you?" Luna asked, a small smile playing at her lips.
“What do you mean?” Twilight replied, raising her head once more.
“The one you wrote, about whether I felt the same way.” Luna said, Twilight’s eyes opened wide, wondering what Luna would say next. Her question was answered by Luna pulling her into an embrace, still Luna felt the need to put it into words.
“Yes, Twilight, I feel the same.” Luna said squeezing the other mare, Twilight squeezed back.
“I feel... relieved and happy and kinda scared at the same time.” Twilight confided a few moments later. “I’m not sure what to do, I’ve never done anything like this before.” Luna took a deep breath of Twilight’s hair and replied.
“Me neither, I guess we’re going to have to learn more than just magic in our lessons.” The two sat there in each other’s arms for an indeterminable amount of time, neither thinking about anything other than that they didn’t want to pull away ever.
They were interrupted however by the library door opening suddenly, the two pulled away and saw Spike walk in, thankfully looking behind him at the five ponies that followed him in. A smile broke out on Twilight’s face as she saw her friends enter her house, she went over to them, trying to stop her blush with some success. Luna stayed back in the bedroom, still thinking over what had just happened.
“Girls! How nice to see you.” Twilight said to the ponies who greeted her back, variations of “Welcome back!” and “Hi!” hit her from five mouths at once.
“Come take a seat, I suppose you want some explanations.” Twilight said, the five mares nodded in unison and took various places around Twilight’s living space. Twilight herself took a seat on an armchair that faced the other seats.
“Where should I start?” Twilight asked once everypony was settled down.
“Well, I’m not sure of what everypony else knows, but I know nothing, Spike just told me that you were back, I didn’t even know you were gone to be honest. So I think you should start at the beginning.” Rainbow Dash replied from her perch on the side of the sofa, Twilight nodded and set about explaining the events of the past few days, neglecting to mention what had just occurred though, they didn’t need to know that just yet. She went through the receiving of the letter, the bubble, the talk with Celestia and the fact that Luna was now going to live with her for a few years.
“Ok, lemme get this straight sugarcube, Princess Luna’s here?” Applejack asked, looking around for any sign of the night princess after Twilight had finished with her explanation. As if on cue, Luna stepped out of Twilight’s bedroom into the main living area.
“Ah, there you are, Princess! Ah’m sorry, didn’ see you there.” Applejack said. The other ponies greeted her too, rather more formally than they did with Twilight, Luna waved her hoof at them, silencing their words.
“Please, call me Luna. Since I’m going to be here a while it would be awkward if we were so formal all the time.” Luna said, slightly uneasy at being around so many ponies. Five heads nodded together following Luna’s words, Pinkie’s head nodding the most enthusiastically.
“Oh my gosh Luna! You know what this means? A Party!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her seat, immediately Twilight shook her head.
“I’m sorry Pinkie, but Luna is supposed to getting better, and we both think that it would be better if she avoided any exhausting activities, so that means no parties for a while.” Pinkie looked slightly crestfallen before almost instantly perking up again, as was her way.
“Okie dokie! As soon as you’re feeling better, we’re gonna throw the biggest party you’ve ever seen!” Pinkie said. Luna nodded in reply, hoping that she could avoid that for as long as possible, she wasn’t exactly the biggest party animal.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll take good care of your guest darling, we should leave you now and give Luna sometime to get settled in, and it’s nice to have you back again.” Rarity said, standing up. The other ponies agreed, rose, and made a beeline for the door.
“Remember Twilight dear, if you need anything just give Rarity a call, I would be more than happy to help out a member of royalty.” Rarity called from the doorway.
“And come visit Sugarcube Corner too!” Pinkie called from behind Rarity.
“Sure thing.” Twilight replied as the door closed behind them.
Luna went back into Twilight’s room to continue sorting out her stuff and after the go-ahead from Twilight, continue reading Twilight’s diary.
“You’ve already read the most embarrassing part so there’s no point why you can’t read the rest of it.” Twilight had said. Twilight went on a search for Spike, who had disappeared during her conversation with her friends. He was found in the kitchen surprisingly enough and was making some sort of drink.
“Hey Spike, I just wanted to thank you for looking after the library whilst I was gone.” Twilight said to the dragon.
“Oh, it was no problem.” Spike said dismissively, turning back to his now finished drink and taking a gulp.
“Ok, well thanks anyway.” Twilight said walking back to her bedroom to check on Luna. It was now evening, her explanation must have taken longer than expected, she would probably have some food and go to sleep, after checking up on Luna, of course.
Luna was sitting on Twilight’s bed, staring at Twilight’s bookcase, looking through the books that Twilight deemed most important at the time. There were several books that were re-prints of important books by famous ponies from history. Twilight took a seat and Luna turned to her.
“Hey Luna, how’s it going?” Twilight asked.
“Fine, your friends are very... enthusiastic.” Luna replied turning back to the bookcase, Twilight followed her gaze.
“Yeah, they’re good friends.” Twilight said, spotting the book that Luna was staring at, it was one of Twilight’s note books, this particular one was on Discord’s chaos magic.
“Would you mind if I read some of your note books, since I’m meant to be your teacher now I think I should find out where you’re at.” Luna said.
Twilight nodded in response, “Sure, I’m going to make some food, you want some?” Twilight asked, standing up once more. Luna nodded distractedly, already a few pages into Twilight’s notes. Twilight walked back into the kitchen to find Spike curled up asleep, she smiled at the gently snoring dragon and levitated him over to his bed with her magic.
The violet glow that enveloped her assistant reminded her of Luna and she found herself thinking about what her lessons would include, which she presumed would be starting tomorrow. She thought about the different subjects of magic that she knew about whilst she worked, tossing salad and chopping vegetables. ‘Perhaps she’s going to teach me about celestial magic, it’s supposed to be drastically different to normal magic.’ Twilight thought to herself as she carried her now completed salad back to the bedroom. Luna was lying on her bed, book suspended above her head with magic, occasionally turning the page. Twilight spooned some of the salad into a separate bowl and set it beside Luna who picked it up with her hooves.
“Thanks.” Luna said, still focussed on the book, she appeared to have finished reading Twilight’s notes on Discord and was now avidly reading about her notes on dragons, complied from Spike, the dragon migration and her own encounter with the dragon that was snoring smoke over Ponyville.
“K.” Twilight replied feeling tired all of a sudden, she climbed into bed and ate her salad slower than normal, thinking through the various events that had occurred, and what the future held. She focussed mainly on the slender, leather-bound book that had caused so much fuss. Eventually, after finishing her salad, she heard the sound of a book falling, she sat up and looked at Luna’s bed opposite her and saw that she must have fallen asleep whilst reading, the book now laying over her face. Twilight stifled a laugh and went to go lift it of the mare’s face, before deciding to join her in the land of dreams.
She was asleep almost instantly, the blackness stretching out across her vision as she fell into the dream realm. She didn’t even have to call for Luna or vice-versa, she just appeared into their shared realm. The realm looked as different as each time before, she appeared to be atop a tree that was so tall it overlooked the entirety of Ponyville, she recognised the view as the exact one she had during the chariot ride over here, presumably that was where Luna got the landscape from. The tree had a flat top, lined with leaves, it must be some form of Redwood judging by the height and the shape of the leaves, however she was unable to categorise it, her knowledge in dendrology was sorely lacking. She saw Luna sitting on a wide horizontal branch that stuck out over the edge of the ‘floor’ and was wide enough that it made a sort of platform. Twilight walked over and sat beside her.
“You probably don’t know this, but I used to be terrified of heights.” Luna said, keeping her eyes fixed on the horizon, Twilight was confused.
“But, you have wings...” Twilight said.
“True, but I’m not that great a flyer, I always preferred to keep to the ground, the only problem was that I absolutely loved the view you had from such a high place as this. When was younger I decided to conquer my fears, I brought myself to the highest tower in the castle and slept on top of it, when I awoke I was no longer afraid of heights.” Luna replied, Twilight nodded in reply to her backstory of the place. She had to agree, the view was spectacular, despite the natural fear of their height.
“I have a question.” Twilight said and Luna turned to her.
“Ask away.” Luna replied.
Twilight cleared her throat before continuing, “How come Celestia asked me to help you, isn’t she more powerful than me?” Luna thought up her answer.
“You see, there are five main categories of magic: the regular magic that unicorns use, celestial magic that only alicorns can use, flight magic that pegasi use, muscular magic that the earth ponies used and the final magic that has been lost for millennia, elemental magic. While my sister is gifted in her celestial magic, her regular magic isn’t all that great, she believes that you have greater power than her, which is one of the reasons she initially took you on as her protégé.” Luna said, “I think for your first lesson we should begin on the different categories of magic.” Twilight nodded, she had known about pegasi, earth pony and unicorn magic, but had heard only small references to celestial magic, and no mention at all of elemental magic, she was looking forward to her lesson. Now that her question was answered, Twilight sat back with a yawn.
She was going to talk about what had happened earlier that day, but thought better of it, thinking that she would let it sit a bit more before bringing it up once more. Noticing her yawn, Luna stood and turned to Twilight.
“I think we should end it here, we’re both tired.” Luna said, Twilight nodded and rose to her hooves just as Luna faded away into her personal sleep. Twilight was about to leave but something occurred to her, she walked over to the edge of the branch platform and looked over the side, she was certainly far up. She had never had any dreams that were lucid enough for her to try something like this and this dream seemed perfect for an experiment like this. She took a step back before launching herself off the edge, she fell like a stone, legs splayed out as the wind rushed past her. Initially she felt the rational fear of falling from a high place but it was soon replaced by the rush of adrenaline and exhilaration of something extreme as this. She had never felt so alive, ironic since this is the sort of thing that a pony would die from. Only at the last second did she consider what would happen once she hit the ground, the thought passing through her mind too quick for her to do anything about it. As she hit everything turned black and she recognised the black expanse of the area between the shared dreams and her own sleep. She slipped into her own sleep, head still spinning and body shaking from what she had just done.
As she slept dreamlessly she heard a voice in the back of her mind, now recognisable as Luna.
“What did you just do? I felt you feel intense fear, but it changed to some sort of adrenaline rush.” Luna asked fearfully.
“I just threw myself off the tree...” Twilight replied guiltily.
“You... threw yourself off the tree?” Luna asked confusedly.
“Yes, it was like nothing I’ve ever done before, that sort of thrill you only get from something dangerous, I’ve felt something like it when battling someone or something much greater and stronger than me but this was so much more intense.” Twilight replied in rush.
“I see... This is interesting, I’ll have to do some research.” Luna replied after a pause, “I’ll leave you to your sleep now.”
“Ok.” Twilight replied, wondering what Luna found so interesting as they went back to their separate sleeps.
When Twilight awoke, Luna was already awake and about. She climbed out of bed and stretched, accompanied by a massive yawn. Luna was in the kitchen having just made some toast for the three of them, Luna and Spike were already about halfway through theirs. Twilight sat down at the spare seat and started eating.
“Morning Twilight.” Spike said between mouthfuls.
“Good morning Twilight.” Luna said a moment later.
“Morning.” Twilight replied, focussing on her food. Having finished her toast Luna looked up at Twilight.
“I was wondering, when would you like your first lesson?” Luna asked. Twilight quickly finished her slice before answering.
“Anytime really, I have nothing planned for today.” Twilight replied.
“That’s weird, I swear I saw you wri-” Spike said before Twilight hushed him with a look.
“Okay, how about we start as soon as we clean up here.” Luna said collecting her and Spike’s plates. Twilight nodded and picked up her own plate, and after a quick wash of all three they went back to the library proper. Luna took place on the armchair that Twilight sat in the day before to explain to her friends, Twilight took a seat opposite her on the sofa. Spike went to the front door.
“Applejack asked me to write some stuff down for her, so I’ll be back later.” Spike called before closing the door, not allowing any time to reply.
Luna turned to her new pupil and began the lesson.
“So, in our dream last night I mentioned the five categories of magic and today I think we should start by going into depth on all five, starting with unicorn magic.” Luna said, Twilight nodded and Luna launched into her explanations, Twilight taking notes on everything she said.
“Unicorn magic is focussed in the horn of unicorn and is the most powerful of the three main types as it allows manipulation of objects instead of just the pony. Then there’s Pegasus magic, this is focussed mainly in the wings and allows the pegasus to fly despite their disproportionate wings, it also gives wings amazing dexterity and strength, allowing pegasi to use their wings for more than just flying, in fact back when things weren’t all peaceful, pegasi used to fight using their wings as well as their hooves, it was terrifying to watch yet amazing to behold. The third of the three main types of magic is the Earth pony magic, this is focussed mainly in the muscles and gives earth ponies increased strength, stamina and speed, however since everypony is just a variation from the original earth ponies, each pony hold a small part of this magic, this allows us to pick up objects with our flat hooves and lift heavy objects with our teeth.” Luna stopped to allow Twilight a chance to finish writing down notes, after she had Luna continued.
“There are two more types though, the first is alicorn magic, as a sort of amalgam between the three main types of pony we alicorns have magic from all three types, though to a lesser extent than one who is just a pegasus, unicorn or earth pony. However, alicorns have a separate type of magic that is unique to each and no one is really sure where it is focussed. Wherever your power is centred around though, is usually the domain you control, even though alicorns can control other domains to a lesser extent. For instance, my domain is the night sky, and my sister’s is the daytime sky, yet she can still raise the moon if she tries though it is much harder. And then there is the fifth and final type of magic, elemental magic. Any pony can use elemental magic, though the secret has long since been forgotten, it gives the user complete control over the elements, that’s fire, water, wind and earth. While each type of magic can give some sort of rudimentary control over the elements, not to be confused with the elements of harmony, which are completely different and I’ll likely have a lesson on them later. Unfortunately, no one has been able to control the elements in this way since before the reign of Discord, it is the only type of magic that is focussed outside of the body, which is why anypony can do it, all I know is that it requires the pony to tap into nature itself.” Silence followed Luna’s words, save for the quick scratch of Twilight’s quill.
Once she finished Twilight sat back, Luna looked at her expectantly.
“Any questions?” Luna asked. Twilight pondered this a moment before answering.
“Yeah, what happened to elemental magic, how come it was forgotten?” Twilight asked eventually.
“Well this is before my time but there was some sort of ‘ritual’ style thing needed to evoke the elemental magic, the process was written down and is in the royal library but nobody, not even the library's top cryptographers have been able to decipher what it says.” Luna said. Twilight nodded and noted something else down.
“Ok, that was my only question, thanks.” Twilight said, closing her newest notebook and setting the quill down. Luna nodded and stood up.
“I’m going to get something to drink, do you want something?” Luna asked.
“No thanks, I’m just gonna write some more notes down and then I was thinking that maybe we could go out?” Twilight asked.
“Sure, that seems like fun.” Luna replied, walking to the kitchen. Twilight sat there with the notebook in front of her and reflecting on the fact Luna was indeed knowledgeable, she had learnt so much in her first lesson, but why couldn’t she stop glancing up at the blue mare? Even when she was focussed on her writing, her eyes were drawn to the face of the mare that had sat in front of her. Twilight gave a sigh and shoved the thought away, she was going out to town with Luna soon and she had to prepare.